PALAKKAD: The Kerala government on Monday acknowledged that the twin murders in Palakkad had a “terror stamp” on them, and in a rare move, deployed police personnel from neighbouring Tamil Nadu in the border district to beef up security.
“The killings had the stamp of terror strikes. They were pre-planned and hence it was difficult to prevent them. There are instances where even military camps in the country were attacked by terrorists,” said Electricity Minister K Krishnankutty after an all-party meeting at the collectorate on Monday. The immediate goal of the government is to ensure peace and remove the fear in the minds of the public, he said.
Police will be instructed to proactively intervene to prevent a recurrence of such incidents. There needs to be a movement of the people against such mindless violence, the minister said. Meanwhile, highly-placed sources said about 500 personnel from the Tamil Nadu Special Police (TSP) have been deployed on the ground in Palakkad to help the state police.
Both RSS and the Popular Front of India (PFI), whose activists were killed in the district in a span of 24 hours, have a strong presence in Tamil Nadu, and the TSP personnel can help in identifying the oufits’ cadre from that state if they enter Palakkad, the sources said.
Earlier, BJP walked out of the all-party meeting terming it “farce”. The party state general secretary C Krishnakumar told reporters that three of their activists — RSS worker Sanjith, Yuva Morcha leader Arun and now Sreenivasan, a former sharirik shiksha pramukh — were killed in the district during the last six months. But the District administration had not even thought of calling an all-party meeting earlier.
‘BJP came to meet after deciding to stage walkout’
In addition to it, the state government had opposed a CBI probe into the killing of Sanjith in the High Court on a petition by his widow. However, the minister alleged that the BJP had come to attend the meeting after deciding to stage a walkout. More discussions will be held in the coming days and there were no differences of opinion at the meeting , said the Minister “Prohibitory orders are in place in the district till April 20, and we’ll take a call on extending it later,” Krishnankutty said.
THREE PICKED UP IN SUBAIR MURDER CASE
Palakkad: Three persons have been taken into custody by the Kasaba police in connection with the killing of Popular Front leader Subair Nombicode at Elappully. Police sources say the trio
had taken part in the killing directly. A total of seven persons are now in custody in connection with Subair’s murder, said sources. ADGP Vijay Sakhare said the persons involved in Subair’s killing are BJP-RSS workers and those involved in the killing of Sreenivasan are SDPI-PFI activists.