Youth Congress worker hacked to death in Kannur: Party blames CPM for murder, calls for shutdown in Kerala district

A 30-year-old youth Congress worker was hacked to death late on Monday in Kerala’s Kannur district, media reported. Two others were injured. The incident took political overtones as the Congress alleged that CPM was behind the murder and called for a day-long ‘hartal’ in the district.

NDTV reported that a gang of men first threw a bomb and then attacked the victim with sharp weapons. Police sources also suspect that CPM supporters were behind the attack. The victim, Shuhaib, was an office bearer of the Youth Congress. Kannur has seen a spate of political killings over the last year. In January, a member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad was hacked to death by a three-member gang in the district. Shyam Prasad, an ITI student, was going to his house at Koothuparamba on his motorcycle when the unidentified gang came in a car and attacked him. [caption id=“attachment_2764352” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Getty Images[/caption] The student tried to flee but the gang chased and hacked him with machetes, seriously injuring him. Though locals rushed him to the government hospital at Koothuparamba, he died on the way. Meanwhile, ABVP alleged that Popular Front of India was behind the killing and demanded that the outfit should be banned. In December, a CPM worker suffered serious injuries in an attack by suspected BJP workers in the politically volatile district. Police said the legs of the 55-year-old Chandran were almost severed in the attack. The ruling CPM alleged that the BJP activists were behind the attack. The attack came a day after a bilateral peace meeting of the leaders of CPM and BJP was held in Kannur in the presence of District Collector Mir Mohammed Ali, in which both parties agreed to initiate peace efforts. A week before that, two separate incidents of violence were reported against RSS activists in Kannur, leaving one person critically injured. The police had suspected that  CPM workers were involved in the attacks.