Prowling cat lands on bomb, killed in blast

KANNUR: "A cat has nine lives," goes the proverb. "For three he plays, for three he strays, and for the last three, he stays."
Valliyayil residents' pet cat, didn't stay. Instead, it leapt and landed on a country-made bomb that killed it instantly in Kannur.
According to police, the blast occurred around 6.15am on Thursday. The feline was apparently hunting and a leap made it land on the bomb concealed in a narrow drain at Valliyayil near Panur.
"When the cat jumped over the drain near the house of a person identified as Majeed, it hit the bomb which exploded on impact, killing the cat," said Panur police inspector Shaji K S.
Following the incident, police registered a case under the Explosive Substances Act. They conducted several raids in the locality, and yielded nothing.
The cat, fondly called Appu, had been a regular visitor to almost all houses, irrespective of the political inclination of the residents.
People getting killed or maimed in political violence was not new to the district, but resident said a pet cat getting killed in a blast was a rare occurrence.
There were, however, instances of pet dogs and cattle getting killed as political rivals settled scores.
In December 2014, a lame crane was shot dead at Kootapunna near Alappadamba in Payyannur. Its fault: someone had branded an RSS symbol on to its wing.
The retaliation came within a couple of days. Another crane was trapped and the letters, DYFI-short for Democratic Youth Federation of India-were etched on its wings.
Police were taking Thursday's incident seriously since they opined that it could even have been a child instead of the cat.
It 1998, a nine-year-old rag picker, Amavasi, lost one arm and an eye when he picked up a steel container that concealed a bomb near Panur.
He later became the mascot of the campaign against violence and was renamed Pooranchandran. A few years ago, he was offered a government job.
Police said raids would be intensified following Appu's death.