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RSS worker's murder: CPI(M) area secretary arrested

By Our Staff Reporter

KANNUR NOV. 18. Even as the murder of an RSS activist by suspected CPI(M) activists near Koothuparamba here late last night left the entire politically sensitive area in a tense situation, the district police intensified law and order measures to avert any escalation of tension and to book the culprits behind the murder.

Koothuparamba police today arrested the CPI(M) area secretary, Panoli Valsan, in connection with the murder. The Koothuparamba Judicial Magistrate Court remanded him in police custody for 14 days. Valsan was among the 10 CPI(M) workers enlisted as accused in the case by police.

The RSS worker, Pottakkadan Shaji (25), had been hacked to death by a group of assailants at Velankichal at Vengad near Koothuparamba at around 9 p.m. He was on his way back home with a friend after attending the RSS `shakha', when the assailants, around eight persons, ambushed and critically stabbed him. It took over an hour for the local people to rush him to a hospital. By that time, he was dead.

A woman, Savithri (45), who tried to stop the assailants from attacking Shaji, was also injured in the attack. She has been admitted to the AKG Hospital here.

As the news of the murder of the RSS worker came in, the EMS Co-operative Society at nearby Oorpallikkavu, Vanitha Co-operative Society at Palabazar and a nearby library also came under attack late last night by suspected RSS workers. A CPI(M) worker was reportedly injured in the retaliatory attack.

Many areas in and around Koothuparamba observed hartal to protest against the killing. Though tension prevails, no untoward incident was reported from the region.

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