Hindustan Times ST (Mumbai)

Slain RSS worker’s 12yearold posts video, asks why did you kill dad?

- Ramesh Babu

The video of a 12-year-old girl whose father was a victim of political violence in north Kerala’s Kannur dis trict has gone viral on socia media. Inspired by the recent posts of Gurmehar Kaur, a Kar gil martyr’s daughter, the girl Vismaya, holds a placard in Hindi and asks perpetrato­rs “Why did you kill my father?”

EM Santhosh Kumar, who was a BJP-RSS worker, was hacked to death at his house in Andaloor, in chief minister Pin arayi Vijayan’s assembly con stituency of Dharmadam, two months back.

“My father was my strength He wanted to fulfil my dreams. A night dashed all my dreams,” said Vismaya, a student of class 8.

Just after her father’s murder a video of Vismaya participat­ing in a quiz competitio­n went viral with many offering her financia and emotional support. “His only mistake was that he sup ported the RSS-BJP. They killed not just my father but my dreams and future. I see only dark ness…i am yet to get the answer why they killed my father,” she said in the video, adding she wanted to become a police officer to serve the country.

Leaders from the BJP and RSS said they shot the video to expose the violence perpetrate­d by CPI(M) activists on party cadre “We wanted to reach the mes sage to a larger audience. If you visit Kannur, you can meet hun dreds of such victims orphaned overnight,” said Satya Prakash BJP Kannur district president Notorious for red-saffron clashes, more than 200 persons have been killed in recurring political clashes between the two cadre-based parties over the las two-and-a-half decades.

Last month, Vijayan was forced to convene an all-party meeting after the violence asso ciated with Kannur began to be replicated in other parts of the state.

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