All-party meeting decides to turn Kannur 'violent-free'

An all-party meeting here, convened by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, today decided to take joint efforts to turn politically-volatile Kannur into a 'violence-free' zone.

The meeting was convened at the District Collectorate here as part of efforts to broker peace in the northern district, where clashes, especially between ruling CPI(M) and BJP, are frequent.

Attended by leaders of major political parties, including CPI, BJP, RSS, Congress and IUML besides ruling CPI(M), the one and half-hour-long meeting also decided to take its spirit and understanding to the grass root level workers of respective parties.

"Everybody (attended the meeting) shared the same sentiments to keep Kannur violence-free. The peace efforts taken under the aegis of the district authorities and the ministers have played a crucial role in reducing the incidents of violence in the district," Vijayan told reporters later.

"Joint efforts should be made to ensure that such efforts fully realises its goal. The incidents of violence can be reduced only if the peace efforts reach the grass root level of respective parties," he said.

Incidents of amassing armaments by party workers were reported in many parts of the district, but Vijayan said he did not think that it was with the knowledge of party leaderships.

"But, respective party leaderships should give strong signals against such trends to the grass root level workers.

Police will intensely continue its efforts to unearth armaments. Public should also come forward to tip information in this regard," he said.

The Chief Minister also gave strict directions to probe the cases impartially and fulfil their duties without succumbing to any outside pressures.

Besides Vijayan, minister Kadannappally Ramachandran, CPI(M) MP from Kannur P K Sreemathi, party state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, senior BJP leader P K Krishnadas and RSS leader P Gopalan Kutty also took part in the meeting.

Last month, a 52-year-old BJP worker was stabbed to death allegedly by CPI(M) activists at Andaloor in Dharmadam, the constituency of Pinarayi Vijayan, and a country bomb hurled at the RSS Karyalaya at nearby Thaliparamba.

A country bomb was also hurled allegedly by BJP workers at a meeting venue at Thalassery, where Balakrishnan had addressed a meeting on January 26.

BJP has been claiming that attacks on its cadres have increased since the CPI(M)-led LDF government came to power.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)