Sabarimala violence: Bombs hurled at residences of BJP MP, CPI-M leaders; over 1700 arrested

KANNUR: Violence continued over the entry of two women of menstruating age into the revered Sabarimala temple as unidentified people hurled a country-made bomb at the ancestral home of a BJP MP while an office of the RSS was set on fire, police said on Saturday.

The two fresh incidents of violence were reported hours after unidentified men threw country-made bombs at the houses of CPI(M) MLA A N Shamsee and the party's former Kannur district secretary P Sasi.

The incident at the ancestral house of BJP Rajya Sabha member V Muraleedharan occurred in the early hours of Saturday.

No one was injured, police said.

Muraleedharan said his ancestral home at Vadiyil Peedikia near Thalassery came under attack, but no one was injured.

"My sister, brother-in-law and their daughter were in the house when the attack took place," he told PTI from Andhra Pradesh.

In another incident, unidentified people set fire to an office of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in Pariyaram area in the morning, police sources told PTI.

The entry of two women into the hill shrine on Wednesday, a first since the Supreme Court in September last year lifted the age-linked ban on the entry of women devotees, triggered massive protests in Kerala.

Muraleedharan had sought a probe by the National Investigation Agency into the "conspiracy" of police escorting the two women with Maoist links to Sabarimala.

So far, over 1,700 people have been arrested in connection with violence in various parts of the state.

Talking to the media Saturday morning, Sasi said the "powerful" bomb hurled at his house caused damage to the building.