Two party leaders, one belonging to the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) and the other belonging to the BJP, were gunned down in Kerala’s coastal Alappuzha district, prompting police to enforce prohibitory orders on Sunday. District officials said that following the killing of the SDPI’s state secretary, a BJP leader was killed within 12 hours and prohibitory orders under section 144 of CrPC were imposed in the entire Alappuzha district on Sunday.
Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) state secretary KS Shan was brutally attacked in Kerala on Saturday night when he was on his way back home and his party alleged that the RSS was behind it. Kochi hospital around midnight, police said.
Less than 12 hours later, Ranjit Srinivasan, state secretary of the OBC Morcha, a popular BJP leader, was killed after his residence in Alappuzha was attacked by assailants. His wife and mother were at the residence at the time of the murder of the advocate.
Ranjith, who is an advocate at Alappuzha Bar, was the BJP candidate from the Alappuzha assembly constituency.
Police said it suspected that the fatal attack on Ranjit, who is also a member of the BJP state committee, was in retaliation for the killing of Shan. Prohibitory orders were imposed with the killing of the BJP leader.
Senior Congress leader and former Kerala Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala condemned the attacks. “Both BJP and SDPI should stop these retaliatory killings and this is not politics. The Kerala Police under the leadership of CPI(M) has turned into a major failure and the state home department and police did not take any precautions even after local level issues related to both the organisations. Senior leaders of both the organizations have been killed and the police is watching the game from the gallery.”
BJP Alappuzha district president, Gopakumar said, “SDPI is on a killing spree and Ranjit Srinivasan was a popular lawyer and a senior BJP leader in Alappuzha district. This is really shocking and the police have miserably failed to stop the violence. SDPI is trying to play with the blood of innocent BJP, RSS workers and they started killing by killing ABVP leader Nandu few months back. This has to be stopped or else Alappuzha district will turn into a battlefield.”
(with inputs from PTI)
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