Stephan Kayyar
Daijiworld Media Network - Kannur
Kannur, Sep 2: Several parts of Kerala came to a standstill on Tuesday September 2 in response to the call for hartal by RSS-BJP following the murder of RSS worker Elanthottil Manoj in Kannur district on Monday September 1. Incidents of stone pelting were reported at many places.
In Kasargod and Manjeshwar towns, however, the situation was normal as the two places were exempted from the hartal in view of Ganeshotsava celebrations. Educational institutions remained closed and exams were postponed, but business and transport functioned normally, though the rush was less than usual as most people chose to remain indoors.
RSS activist Elanthottil Manoj (38) was hacked to death at Kathiroor in Kannur district on Monday. Another person, identified as Pramod (35) who was with him was seriously injured. The gang is said to have been lying in wait for Manoj's car. When his car came in view, the accused hurled a crude bomb in its way and the car went out of control. They then forced Manoj out of the vehicle and attacked him with sickles, and when Pramod tried to intervene, they attacked him too. Manoj died on the way to hospital, while Pramod was admitted to Thalassery hospital.
The BJP-RSS call for bandh shut down the state. Stones were pelted at buses in several places and in Kannur's Peralacherry, crude bombs were hurled at shops, and one person was injured.
In Ernakulum, stones were pelted at RSS office, and buses were damaged at Pathanamthitta. Three vehicles belonging to the cashew development board in Alappuzha (Alleppey) were attacked and in Kochi, the employees of KSEB were threatened.
Sources said that Manoj and Pramod are accused of attempting to murder CPI (M) district secretary P Jayaraj in 1999. Manoj has been striving hard to strengthen BJP's presence in Kannur, and is said to have played a major role in over 500 persons joining the BJP recently. RSS has alleged that CPI (M) workers are behind the killing of Manoj.
It is also said that T K Rajeesh, one of the accused in the T P Chandrasekharan murder case, and his accomplices had tried to murder Manoj a few years ago. Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) leader T P Chandrasekharan was murdered in Onchiyam, Kozhikode in 2012.
A special police team headed by DySP (crime) T P Premrajan has been formed by the state government to investigate Manoj's murder.