Twenty-four-year-old Shyama Prasad, an RSS work was the latest victim in the political violence that has consumed Kannur in north Kerala over several decades.
Hours after Shyama Prasad’s death was reported by the media, Malaylam actor Tovino Thomas took to Facebook to express his concern over the growing violence.
“I remember clicking a picture with him while I was shooting Mayaanadhi’s climax scenes! Deeply saddened and disturbed by the news of his demise,” read his Facebook post.
“I don’t know Shyama Prasad, except for a selfie that he took with me once on Mayaanadhi’s shooting location. Reports of his demise has disturbed my sleep. How can people kill each other, whatever may the cause be?” he asked.
The actor star also noted that it is deeply disturbing to see the institutions that are morally responsible for the society’s well-being, guilty of instigating violence among people.
“The infrastructure that is instituted for the well-being of people is inflicting violence on its own subjects. Are we living in a cursed world? It feels so. Isn’t it so much easier to spread love and affection than indulge in violence?” questioned Tovino.
According to the police, Shyama Prasad, was hacked to death by a gang of masked men, who stopped him while he was riding his bike. Shyama Prasad was a student at Industrial Training Institute in Kakkayangad and was the mukhya sikshak of a local RSS sakha.
Kannur district will observe a dawn to dusk hartal, organized by BJP workers on Saturday owing to Shyama Prasad's murder. The party members have, however, decided to exempt vehicles from the hartal.
Kannur has a long history of bloodshed, with frequent attacks between CPI(M) and BJP and RSS workers.
According to data accessed by NDTV, 172 killings have taken place in the last 17 years in Kannur. RSS and the BJP have together lost 65 party workers, while CPI (M) lost 85 workers in nearly two decades. But the violence has also cost the lives other political parties, with data showing that 11 activists each of the Congress and the IUML have also been killed in this period. Statistics showed that from February 2016 to July 2017, 10 RSS or BJP workers, and four CPI (M) workers have been murdered. The data pointed out that the rate of political killings are on the higher side when a LDF government is in power.
However, in a Facebook post on January 9, CM Pinarayi Vijayan said that the number of political killing has come down in 2017. The CM stated that in 2017 there were 5 cases of political murders in 2017 as against 14 in 2016, while there were 1522 cases of political violence registered in the state in 2017 as against 1768 in the previous year.