The Hindu : Eight killed in Marad violence

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, May 03, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala

Eight killed in Marad violence

By Our Staff Reporter

KOZHIKODE MAY 2. At least eight persons were killed and 19 others injured in clashes between two groups in the communally-sensitive Marad beach in Beypore here today.

The dead have been identified as Gopalan, Chandran, Santosh, Madhavan, Asghar, Dasan, Pushparaj and Krishnan. Two of the injured are women.

At least 15 persons have been brought to the Kozhikode Medical College Hospital (KMCH) with serious stab injuries. The condition of Preju (27) is said to be serious, the police said.

Some policemen were also injured while dispersing the clashing mobs. Police sources said today's riots were a continuation of the violence witnessed in the same area last year.

The police are yet to ascertain the cause that led to the clashes, which started at around 7 p.m. But local people said that the violence erupted when a group of youth who were relaxing on the beach were attacked by another group, apparently without any provocation.

Reports reaching here said clashes were continuing. The situation continued to be tense. But the police said that the situation was gradually being brought under control.

Mediapersons rushing to the scene were waylaid by miscreants and intimidated, making it difficult for them to move around the trouble spots.

A large contingent of police has been rushed to the spot. Senior police officers, including the North Zone Inspector-General of Police, Venugopal K. Nair, and the City Police Commissioner, T.K. Vinod Kumar, are at the scene to supervise deployment of police personnel to restore peace. The services of the Rapid Action Force have been requisitioned.

This is the second communal riots to rock Marad in recent times. Riots between the two communities had claimed six lives on January 3 last year. The district police had then promised to set up watch towers and high-mast lighting in the area. But no follow-up action was taken. A number of initiatives were made by the Government and cultural organisations to bring life back to normal after the riots in January.

Marad has a large number of clusters of small houses in which members of different communities live and interact closely every day. When communal relations are strained, Marad is like a burning volcano that might explode any time, spewing death and destruction.

Keeping this in mind, several cultural programmes were organised and houses built and handed over to those whose shelters were destroyed in the mindless violence. Cultural leaders believed that such an approach would be more effective to restore peace rather than police action that treated violence as a purely law and order problem. The leadership of all major political parties, including the BJP and the IUML, had also played an active role in the effort to restore peace in Marad. Large amounts of money were raised as donations for relief measures.

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