Local MLA and senior leader of Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), Abdusamad Samadani, was admitted to a private hospital here with a stab wound on Friday. He was attacked while mediating a dispute between two groups over the president’s post of the Alinchuvad Juma Masjid Committee near here on Friday morning. Police arrested Pulikkal Kunjava for allegedly stabbing the MLA. Kunjava was admitted to the Kozhikode Medical College Hospital with injuries after he was attacked by a violent mob in retaliation to the attack on the MLA. The MLA was mediating a five-year-old feud between two groups at the Juma Masjid. Two brothers of Pulikkal Kunjava, Pulikkal Aboobacker, 55, and Pulikkal Abdu, were murdered in an attack over the president’s post of the mosque and its mahal in 2008. Pulickal Mohammed Haji had appointed himself as the president of the mosque after his son Pulikkal Kunhava’s term ended in 2008. The move was opposed by another group in the mosque, which ended in violence. Samadani, also a wellknown religious scholar, tried to settle the issues between the groups through the meeting held on Friday. People close to the MLA said that the meeting ended fruitfully on Friday. “Pulikkal Kunhava asked the MLA to meet him personally after the meeting. He attacked the MLA while they were having a private talk in a room,” the personal assistant of the MLA said. Tirur DySP K M Saidali has started investigation into the matter. Pulikkal Kunhava is under police observation at the Medical College Hospital. The DySP said the police would probe the reason which provoked Kunhava to attack the MLA. Hospital officials said the MLA had a fracture in his nose and should remain in the hospital for a couple of days.