Joint investigation by central intelligence agencies and Kerala police to reinvestigate certain political killings in Kannur; PFI attacks resemble guerrilla warfare of Syria and Iraq

KANNUR: Central intelligence agency and the Kerala police will jointly reinvestigate certain political murders that took place in Kannur. The move comes after the central agency received information about PFI’s hit list that includes a number of top political leaders of the state on it. The investigating team will probe the terror angle in six murders, including ‘Kshethra Samrakshna Samithi’ leader Punnad Ashwini Kumar.

Kannur witnessed the most violence during the recent hartal called by the Popular Front. Eighty cases were registered just from Kannur city police station limits alone. The state intelligence has submitted a report which says that these attacks resemble guerrilla tactics used by terrorists in war-torn Syria and Iraq.

The report also points out that the number of violent incidents during PFI’s hartal was far higher than that of any other political party’s hartal in recent history.

The police have also found that attacks were executed by using PFI strongholds as a base. It is said that the PFI activists used petrol bombs widely in order to avoid being booked under the stringent UAPA.

Police say PFI activists use motorcycles to carry out bomb attacks and return to their strongholds once their mission is over.