Unidentified men in Kerala attacked two workers of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) since Wednesday night, hours after of the party agreed with the Bharatiya Janata Party to ensure peace in the state.
SL Saju, an area committee member in Thiruvananthapuram, was taken to hospital on Wednesday night after an armed gang attacked him, PTI reported. On Thursday morning, another worker, Chandran, was injured in Panoor district after he was attacked when he was out to sell milk. He was taken to the Kozhikode Medical College Hospital with his legs almost severed, the police said.
The CPI(M) has alleged that BJP activists were behind the attacks.
On Wednesday, leaders of the two parties met in Kannur in the presence of District Collector Mir Mohammed Ali and agreed to begin efforts to curb political violence in the region.
There have been several such incidents of right-wing and left-wing activists being attacked in Kerala over the past decade and a half. There are no official figures, but data obtained from a Right to Information query showed that both sides lost at least 30 workers each between 2000 and 2016. Kannur alone reported 69 political murders in this period.
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