Stray violence has been reported since this morning from parts of Kerala as a dawn-to-dusk hartal called by BJP and RSS took effect at 6 am.
The hartal is to protest yesterday’s killing of an RSS functionary at Kathiroor in Thalassery, which has a history of political violence involving BJP-RSS and the CPM.
Suspects held
The police have arrested eight persons suspected to have been involved in the daylight murder even as a prime suspect is still at large.
A heavy police presence is discernible in the violence-prone Kannur and Kozhikode districts following intelligence inputs suggesting that large-scale mobilisation of cadres may be triggered under the cover of the hartal.
Sangh parivar outfits have requested that even private vehicles keep off from the roads during the hartal.
Murder of RSS functionary
The report of the murder of the RSS functionary came even as BJP President Amit Shah was meeting party cadres in Thiruvananthapuram.
He expressed shock and deep concern, saying that the party would meet life threats to its functionaries ideologically and through legal recourse.
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had ended his week-long tour of the State just as the early reports of the murder reached here.
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.