“We have lost the backbone of our colony,” says a woman in a red sari, when a microphone is pointed to her. She is talking about PU Sanoop, a 26-year-old Communist worker in Kerala’s Thrissur, who was murdered on Sunday night. He was allegedly killed by workers of the BJP.
Women have gathered around to mourn the untimely demise of Sanoop and in a video recorded by Witness News, they speak through their tears, of the ‘son’, the ‘thakkudu’ they all loved.
“Thakkudu (as Sanoop is fondly called) is our son. He runs for all of us. It is very sad to lose him. We won’t have a son like him again. A part of us is lost forever,” says an older woman, wearing a shawl over her head.
Sanoop lost his parents when he was young and he grew up as a popular young leader of a colony in Puthussery.
Transcending religious barriers, the women of the colony have come together in this hour of sorrow. “Whatever problem we had we could go tell him and he would reach immediately to help. (He was a) good person. Lots to say about him but too sad to say anything now,” says another woman who finds it hard to speak as she weeps. She manages to add, “He was the only wealth we had.”
Even on the day he died, Anoop was engaged in arranging food packets for the poor at the Thrissur Medical College.
On Tuesday morning, no arrests have been made in the case of the murder of Sanoop, who was the CPI(M) branch secretary in Puthussery and an active member of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI). An official at the Erumapetty police station where the case is registered said, “No arrests yet.”
This is the fourth political murder in recent weeks. All four deceased are youth workers of the CPI(M), the ruling party of the state. Last month, two DYFI members Midhilaj (30) and Haq Mohammed (24) were killed in Venjaramoodu, Thiruvananthapuram, allegedly by Congress workers. Seven people including a woman were arrested in the case. Earlier, another Communist leader called Siyad was killed in Alappuzha, allegedly by Congress.
Watch: Women mourn Sanoop’s death