Cong. worker attacked

By Our Staff Reporter

KANNUR, AUG. 21. Barely a month after an attack on a Congress worker in broad daylight at Thottada by CPI(M) workers, another Congress activist was seriously wounded in a similar attack carried out by suspected CPI(M) workers in a nearby area today.

The police said that the DCC member and Edakkad grama panchayat member, Mr. Palakkal Sreenivasan (55), was on his way to the Thottada bus stop at around 10-30 a.m. when a group of 10 CPI(M) workers swooped on him and clobbered him on both his legs with iron rods near the local Maveli Store and local CPI(M) office close to the National Highway. Minutes after the `operation', the assailants escaped in a jeep that was kept revving.

Both his legs suffered serious multiple fractures. He was immediately rushed to the District Government Hospital here and has been admitted to a private hospital here for an emergency operation. The police said Mr. Sreenivasan sustained around 20 cuts and injuries on his legs.

Mr. Sreenivasan, a trusted follower of the Forest Minister and DCC president, Mr. K. Sudhakaran, was not known for any involvement in any incident of political violence that would, as political practice here goes, attract retaliatory attacks. According to Congress workers, he was entrusted by the DCC president to handle cases involving Congress workers.

According to the police, Mr. Sreenivasan identified some of the assailants in his statement to the police. Senior police officers, including the SP, Mr. Manoj Abraham, and the Kannur Dy.SP, Mr. Bhaskaran Ponnath, were personally supervising a raid in the afternoon on suspected `hide-outs' of the assailants.

The modus operandi of the assault intended to render the victim's lower limbs permanently impaired was no different from that of the ambush-like attack on Mottammal Saleesh (30), local Congress worker and jeep driver, at Thottada on July 26 last. His legs had suffered multiple stab injuries. Another Congress worker Boby, who is a relative of Mr. Sudhakaran, had had one of his legs nearly severed in an attack by suspected CPI(M) workers at nearby Edakkad before the Assembly election. The same mode of attack had been resorted to in the assault on another Congress worker, Mr. Rajesh, who is a member of the Pallikkunnu grama panchayat, inside the panchayat office under the town police station limits.

What raises concern is the fact these attacks occurred in Edakkad and Thottada areas under the Edakkad police station limits that did not witness any outbreak of political tension or violence in recent times. A hartal was observed in the areas in protest against the attack on Mr. Sreenivasan.

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Section  : Southern States
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