THE Kerala police is running riot in Nadapuram under the directives of the UDF bigwigs. The police who are given a free hand to intimidate and frighten the people have gone on a rampage in many parts of the district. They are beating up the poor innocent people of the area indiscriminately, not caring whether they are women, children or elderly persons. All this is being done at a time when the people of the area are yet to recover from the inhuman assaults made by the extremist groups recently absorbed by the IUML.

It was the turn of Valayam, a tiny village in the area to experience the vengeful acts of the pro-IUML police on July 8. Around 7 p m the police entered the village and began their combing operation led by an Inspector and a few other officers. They entered the houses and destroyed everything that came in their view. The women were terrorised to reveal where the men folk were hiding. A number of women were seriously injured in this attack, of whom nine were hospitalized at the Vatakara Taluk head quarters hospital. Old women and even a pregnant young woman was not spared by the police, who it appeared were competing among themselves to gratify the IUML bosses of the area.

The women jointly tried to resist this inhuman attack of the police. Fearing police action against them many of the young men of the locality had who have incurred the wrath of the IUML bigwigs of the area, went into hiding in places not known even to their spouses and comrades.

The UDF police beat the women for questioning their brutal behaviour. Not only Valayam, but also Kaiveli, Purameri, Thanneerpanthal, Elayidam, Kakkat, Mokeri and many other villages suffered such intimidation and assault by the police. They have let loose their notorious gangs of uniformed criminals within the force under an inspector named Pradeep to assault the innocent people, disregarding their age and gender. They even enter the refugee camps where the innocent victims of IUML assaults are sheltered and attack the refugees. They take the people, especially women and children at gunpoint and threaten them to get undertakings stating what they want them to so as to frame charges according to the whims and fancies of the IUML masters.

The IUML has instructed the police to book and arrest those muslims who refuse to mudsling the CPI(M) as per its intention. The result is that Hamza, a driver was taken by the police and kept in the lock-up for four days after brutally assaulting him. People of the area are now so much afraid of such police excesses that they are unable to travel even in public conveyances freely. The policemen are there to take anybody to station on the pretext of questioning them for reason not known to anybody. Peace and harmony of the area is under a hazardous jeopardy due to this attitude of the police. The police have a free hand because the chief minister Antony cancelled the peace meeting he himslef convened taking the pretext of the Kadalundi train accident. Antony was in fact waiting for an opportunity to evade meeting the people of Nadapuram. He was forced to call this meeting as he was the person who actually worsened the situation in Nadapuram for his narrow political gains. He was the first man to spread the scandal that the CPI(M) activists had raped a muslim woman, which, in fact, turned out to be a lie. The medical examination of the woman in question has revealed that the story was a concoction. Antony's spreading of this scandal led to the cruel murder of Binu, a CPI(M) activist at the hands of the extremist wing of the IUML.

Now the police do not permit the shops of Nadapuram to remain open after 5 p m People are today more afraid of the police than they are of the IUML hooligans. The IUML prepares the list of the persons, who invariably would be CPI(M) workers and sympathizers, to be booked and arrested. Of them a number of persons are government employees. This is done in a tacit understanding with the police. The people are aware that all these cases and charges against are trumped up with an intention to frighten the employees of the area to refrain from involving themselves in their fighting class organizations.

The class and mass organizations the state over have strongly condemned the act of the police. The CPI(M) state secretariat has warned the chief minister of dire consequences in case the police violence is not stopped forthwith. E K Nayanar has staunchly despised the heinous and criminal acts of the police against the helpless women and children and old men of Nadapuram. DYFI Kerala state committee has warned of concerted and far sustaining struggles against these atrocities.

One thing is clear, the people of Nadapuram are not ready to be cowed down by these terror tactics of the police and the goons. The people of this area are tempered with steel, the steel of incessant struggles, not only against feudalism, but also against imperialism and hooligans of the feudal lords.

The all party meet held in the presence of the Kerala chief minister A K Antony has called upon the people to maintain peace and harmony in Nadapuram. The meeting condemned all violent incidents taking place in Nadapuram and appealed to the people to remain calm. It also decided to hold a dialogue between the CPI(M) -IUML parties. Kodiyeri Balakrishnan from the CPI(M) and P K Kunhalikutty from the IUML are entrusted with the task of dialogue. Following the dialogue there will be an all-party meet again at Nadapuram. The chief minister has promised to attend this all-party meeting.

The dialogue will be held without delay. The chief minister and other participants expressed hope that the estrangement, enmity and cleavage created in the mind set of the people of the locality could be erased by concerted efforts of political parties and other humanitarian groups. The chief minister asssured the meeting that all criminals involved in crimes at Nadapuram will be booked and brought for trial.

The CPI(M) leaders pointed out the negligence on the part of the police and made it clear that the party participated in the conference, as it wanted peace to prevail in the area. The attacks were all planned and executed by the IUML. No retaliation took place anywhere in the area after the assassination of Comrade Binu. Yet the police is conducting a punitive combing operation in CPI(M) strongholds. Innocent people are being assailed and their houses ransacked in the name of raids. Even as the police is making no effort to discover the arsenals the IUML men have piled in the area, they are not sparing even pregnant women during the raids. The CPI(M) leaders have demanded an immediate stop to the police terrorism.

The peace meeting decided to extend the time for shutting shops and establishments upto 7 p m. The CPI(M) had demanded removal of the ban on the opening and closure of business establishments on the plea that this creates only tension. It was decided in the meeting to think of warding off all the restrictions after one month.

Apart from the chief minister A K Antony, P K Kunhalikutty and ministers from the Kozhikode district attended this meeting. The CPI(M) was represented by Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, A Kanaran, M Kelappan and three MLAs. Representatives of other parties and their MLAs also attended the meeting.

The chief minister has at last come to his senses to ease the situation in Nadapuram. It may be remembered that it was the same Antony who initiated the untruthful story of the rape of a woman and her daughter for political mileage on the eve of assembly polls, when he was the leader of opposition. He joined hands with Dr M K Muneer, E Ahmed MP, and C K Padmanbhan of the BJP in spreading the scandal. He got the mileage in the elections, however at the cost of the blood of innocent people.

The people of the area hope that this venture of the political parties would at least bring ultimate peace in the locality

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