Anonymous persons threw stones at the house of Communist Party of India (Marxist) district secretary Anavoor Nagappan in Thiruvananthapuram early on Sunday. None were injured in the attack. The stones broke windowpanes and landed in a bedroom. Mr. Nagappan was not at home at the time of the incident.
The episode came close on the heels of the arrest of four Akhila Bharathiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) workers for allegedly throwing stones at the CPI(M) district committee office late on Friday.
The retaliatory violence has put the district’s CPI(M) and BJP cadres on edge. Last week, an alleged CPI(M) attack on the ABVP State committee office triggered the tit-for-tat attacks.
The chain of events started when ABVP workers interrupted a Left Democratic Front (LDF) procession last week and petitioned the Vanchiyor counsellor, Gayatri Babu, to address the pitiful state of local roads in the Municipal ward. Irked CPI(M) workers stormed the ABVP office later, according to police.
The police identified the arrested ABVP workers as Lal, Satheerthyan, Hari and Sankar. They said the workers had been admitted to a private hospital following a brawl with CPI(M) activists.
The police suspect that the ABVP men slinked out of the hospital to attack the CPI(M) district office. Neighbourhood surveillance camera footage provided the initial clues about the suspects.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, accompanied by CPI(M) top brass, had inspected the party’s district headquarters in the aftermath of the incident.
The attack on Mr. Nagappan’s house had come when the CPI(M) State secretariat was urgently meeting to discuss a slew of important issues, including nominating a senior leader to officiate for party State secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, who is on medical leave.
Left Democratic Front (LDF) convenor E. P. Jayarajan said the latest attack was part of a larger BJP conspiracy to unleash anarchy in the State. He asked CPI(M) cadres to adhere to peace and not to get provoked.
The BJP has blamed the CPI(M) for staging the attacks to play the victim and divert public attention from the government’s failures and scandals, dogging the political executive. It has accused the government of foisting false cases on ABVP workers.
