Date:13/03/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/03/13/stories/2008031354210400.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Sack LDF government, says BJP

Special Correspondent

It demands CBI probe into Kannur killings

‘CPI(M) has declared nearly 100 villages as communist villages’
Deployment of Central security forces in Kannur sought

BANGALORE: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday demanded that the Left Democratic Front Government in Kerala led by V.S. Achutanandan be dismissed in the wake of the killing of five Rasthriya Swayamsevak Sangh workers in Kannur district allegedly by the Marxists.

Addressing a press conference here, BJP national executive committee member P.S. Sreedharan Pillai, who is former president of the Kerala State BJP unit, demanded a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the Kannur killings.

He termed the Kannur killings as a “state-sponsored terrorism” by the LDF government. He alleged that the CPI(M) had declared nearly 100 villages in Kannur district as “communist villages” and banned other parties from taking up any political activities there.

“They have been targeting the BJP and the RSS as they are active in these villages,” he alleged.

Mr. Pillai sought the Centre’s intervention in the matter and also deployment of Central Security forces in Kannur district to prevent any further clashes. The Centre should also take steps to lift the “unofficial ban” on non-communist political activity in the 100 villages in Kannur district, he said. He said the attacks were pre-planned and the police had supported those behind the attacks.

He displayed calendar-size photographs that he claimed were the bodies of the victims of alleged communist violence.

The BJP would draw the attention of the country on the episode by holding protests and demonstrations in all the states, he said. Such a protest is being held in Bangalore on Thursday.

Hand denied

Replying to queries, Mr. Pillai said the BJP or the Sangh Parivar had nothing to do with the attacks against the CPI(M) leader’s residence in Bangalore. “Let the law take its own course and we do not want to stand in between”, he said.

Referring to the attack against the CPI(M) headquarters in Delhi, he said those who indulged in the attack were “some miscreants” and not the activists of Sangh Parivar.