Apprehending attacks, the Kerala Police scampered to put all offices of the RSS, BJP and CPI(M) in the state under guard.

However, since the orgy of violence began last Wednesday in Kannur, leaving seven dead so far in attacks with country bombs and swords, there was a lull in the worst-hit Thalassery, Kathirur and Panur areas on Sunday.

Local RSS-BJP leaders met Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan in Thalassery to convey their stance, but ruled out sitting across the table with the CPI(M) for any peace effort.

Senior RSS leader Valsan Thillankeri said they would see how the CPI(M) responds to efforts to stop the killings before committing their own position. “We have had many peace talks and all-party meets earlier too, but the CPI(M) has invariably broken its word every time,” he alleged, even as he said the BJP-RSS was all for peace.

Kannur is one of Kerala’s traditional CPI(M) bastions, where the Communist party in the state was born and where most of the current and earlier crop of its state leaders come from — ironically, many senior RSS-BJP state leaders as well. Its Thalassery belt is Balakrishnan’s constituency, and the Home Minister is drawing allegations that he had facilitated the current spiral of violence.

The killings and violence come in the wake of a series of attacks a couple of months ago, in which six CPI(M) men had been bombed, hacked or stabbed to death, again as a follow-up to previous killings. The CPI(M) apparently took time reacting as it did not want to be distracted from its crucial triennial state conference at Kottayam, where state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, who too hails from Kannur, was busy consolidating the ground for his re-election in a bitter factional war.

... contd.