KANNUR: Prohibitory orders have been clamped on areas under the Taliparamba police station limits for five days in view of the tension there following attacks on property and vehicles by activists of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML).

The orders under the Kerala Police Act sections 21 and 23 were issued by District Collector K.S. Srinivas on Monday after incidents of violence were reported from the area in the early hours of the day. The tension that broke out in the area following attacks on CPI(M) offices by IUML workers on February 24 still continued.

A Maruti car and two two-wheelers parked at the house of K.P. Ashraf, Kerala Vyapari Vyavasayi Taliparamba unit general secretary and local IUML supporter, in Taliparamba were set ablaze by a group of people, suspected to be CPI(M) workers, in the early hours. A club run by IUML workers at Taliparamba was vandalised. Windscreen of a lorry owned by a local IUML supporter was smashed. An upholstery shop owned by a CPI(M) worker at Manna near Taliparamba came under attack.

Tension prevailed at Chalad under the Town police station limits where the local IUML office was torched by suspected CPI(M) workers in the morning.

Meanwhile, Chapparappadavu where several shops had been torched on Sunday as a sequel to the IUML-CPI(M) violence was returning to normality. No incident was reported on Monday.

Pinarayi's charge

CPI(M) State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan has accused the IUML of having masterminded violence in the district with clear agenda and plan.

Speaking at a press conference here on Monday, Mr. Vijayan said the IUML leadership here instigated violence with a pre-planned political agenda. The attacks on CPI(M) offices and the office of the Deshabhimani daily could not be dismissed as unpremeditated, he said adding the earlier incidents of attacks on CPI(M) workers at Pappinissery were a `test dose.'

Stating that the IUML leadership was expected to know that the CPI(M) could not be intimidated, Mr. Vijayan said the CPI(M) offices had been attacked in the presence of the police. He said the IUML's claim that the attacks had been carried out by anti-social elements could not help it wash its hands off the incidents. The National Development Front (NDF) had now been completely absorbed in the IUML, he said adding the attacks had been jointly planned by the NDF and the IUML. He also said there were reports of talks between the KPCC and the NDF.

Referring to the Supreme Court order on the Mullaperiyar issue, Mr. Vijayan said the latest court order allowing the Tamil Nadu Government to raise the maximum water level at the dam from 136 feet to 146 feet exposed the failure of the State Government in handling the issue with all seriousness it deserved. Thousands of people living in the area would be dismayed in the wake of the order, Mr. Vijayan added.

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