Make bombs, kill people, repeat: Beware Kannur natives!

Political party workers engaged in bomb-making getting killed in bomb explosions are just news. But more frightening and tragic is the fact that a common man, who was sauntering in a field getting killed horrifically in a country-made bomb blast. Most people don’t care an ounce if party workers die in an explosion while making bombs. But the situation is not the same when an innocent man gets killed in a bomb blast for no reason of his own. This makes the tragic death of the 90-year-old man in Eranholi in Kannur different.

Velayudhan who used to pick scraps and coconuts from fields was on his routine walk when he saw a steel box lying on the ground. Unknowingly, the senior citizen tried to open the box and then he heard nothing. The explosion even shook the neighbors who rushed to the field to see a lifeless 90-year-old lying in terrible condition. The incident evoked strong sympathy and anger from the public.

Congress leaders alleged that CPM members for the incident since the location was a communist bastion. The duty to solve the mystery lies with the police. But in Kannur, things work oddly as the police are known to take an obsequious stand to the political party at the helm. On the other hand, it is ill-thought to pile all the blame on CPM on the issue even before the case has gone into investigation. In Kannur, all political parties are known for their expertise in bomb-making. Even if some arrests are made, the big brains behind the incident will remain out of reach of the police; ensuring that the violent trend continues.

During the last Lok Sabha elections, one person was killed and three others were injured in an explosion that occurred during bomb-making in Panur. Despite the big cry from the opposition, no serious moves were made and the big names were allowed a free run. Although initially disassociated from the incident, CPM later took the initiative to build a martyr's shrine for those killed. In Kannur, all this is an open secret but people rarely gather the courage to speak against the political big powers.

Police should conduct raids in vacant houses, fields, suspicious offices and other places in Kannur. The tragic deaths like that of Velayudhan should not be emulated again in the district. The video of a CPM worker wearing a raincoat throwing a bomb at a BJP worker's house in Mahe went viral on social media the other day. Investigations led by police in Kannur are nothing but a wasteful exercise. The case will never see the light of the day and will eventually fade from public memory. Expect changes only on the day when political parties engaged in such violence decide to give some consideration to the poor people of the state. Otherwise, the rotten standards of violence will continue to claim more innocent lives.