Advertisement
X

Sabarimala Row: Bombs Hurled At Houses Of Left Leaders, RSS Office Set On Fire In Kerala

Bombs were also hurled at CPI(M) leader and former Kannur district secretary of CPI(M) P Sasi's house at Thalassery and a CPI(M) activist Vishak attacked at Iritty, a place in Kannur district.

Violence continued over the entry of two women of menstruating age into the revered Sabarimala temple, as unidentified people hurled a country-made bomb at the ancestral home of BJP MP and set fire to an office of the RSS, police said on Saturday.

The two fresh incidents of violence were reported hours after unidentified men threw country-made bombs at the houses of CPI(M) MLA A N Shamsee and the party's former Kannur district secretary P Sasi.

The incident at the ancestral house of BJP Rajya Sabha member V Muraleedharan occurred in the early hours of Saturday. No one was injured, police said.

Muraleedharan said his ancestral home at Vadiyil Peedikia near Thalassery came under attack, but no one was injured.

"My sister, brother-in-law and their daughter were in the house when the attack took place," he said from Andhra Pradesh.

In another incident, unidentified people set fire to an office of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in Pariyaram area in the morning, police sources said.

A CPI(M) worker was attacked at Perumbara in Iritty in the district last night while RSS leader K Chandrasekharan was assaulted in Thalassery and his house ransacked allegedly by a group of around 25 Marxist workers.

With the tension continuing, the CPI(M) and the BJP-RSS leaderships traded charges and blamed each other for the violent attacks.

CPI(M) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan told reporters in Thiruvananthapuram that the RSS was trying to trigger riot in the state and sabotage peace talks.

The RSS-BJP combine was turning temples and educational institutions managed by them as "armoury", he alleged, adding the ruling party would take the initiative to restore peace in
violence-hit areas.

Echoing similar views, CPI-M Kannur District Secretary P Jayarajan urged the Sangh Parivar forces to end violence.

The Left party would take steps to ensure peace, he told a television channel.

Countering the charges, V Muraleedharan said the incidents of violence were the tactics of the ruling CPI(M) to divert attention from the controversies and protests over the violation of the traditional customs at the Sabarimala temple.

The entry of two women into the hill shrine on Wednesday, the first time since the Supreme Court in September last year lifted the age-linked ban on the entry of women devotees, triggered massive protests in Kerala.

Advertisement

Muraleedharan had sought a probe by the NIA into the "conspiracy" of police escorting the two women with Maoist links to Sabarimala.

So far, over 1,700 people have been arrested in connection with violence in various parts of the state.

Talking to the media Saturday morning, Sasi said the "powerful" bomb hurled at his house caused damage to the building.

(PTI)

Show comments
US