KANNUR: Barely days after the much-touted conciliatory meeting convened by the CPM and BJP leaders here in the presence of RSS leaders to restore peace in the district, political violence returned with unidentified miscreants attacking a CPM branch office in politically sensitive Dharmadam Assembly segment represented by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. However, CPM local leaders said they have asked party cadre to exercise restraint and desist from resorting to retaliatory attacks.
“The attack on the CPM branch office during the early hours on Sunday was a clear attempt to torpedo the peace process. But we have urged party workers to ignore such provocations. We know who all are behind the incident and they want to unleash violence in Kannur even as the LDF Government is striving to ensure peace in the state,” said senior CPM leader P Balan.The BJP leaders also voiced concern at the incident while insisting neither the BJP nor the RSS had any role in the attack. “Our party workers had no role in it. We are fully committed to ensuring peaceful atmosphere in the state as directed by party’s senior leaders,” said BJP district chief P Sathyaprakash.
Despite the BJP-RSS steadfastly denying any hand in the attack on the party office, the blamegame between the two sides continues unabated.It was in the wee hours on Sunday the CPM branch office at Swamikunnu in Dharmadam was vandalised, police said. The CPM alleged the BJP-RSS was behind the incident. Three window panes, a flag pole and signboard were damaged in the sporadic violence.