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A popular RSS activist was hacked to death by five bike-borne men on Saturday, about 24 hours after a Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) activist was assassinated in Ellapully, Kerala’s Palakkad district.
According to authorities, Sreenivasan, 45, was attacked with swords and knives at his shop.
When bystanders rushed in after hearing Sreenivasan’s cries, they found one individual sitting on a bike, waiting for his accomplices who were inside the shop. The assailants then departed on two motorcycles.
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Sreenivasan was a major functionary and former RSS office-bearer.
Subair, a 43-year-old SDPI activist, was assassinated by a group of men around the same time on Friday. The attackers, according to the SDPI, were RSS activists.
Subair and his elderly father Basheer were riding their bikes home after attending Friday prayers at a mosque when the bike was hit by a car, knocking both of them down.
Basheer claimed that four men arrived in two automobiles and cut his son to death, before fleeing in one car and leaving the other at the crime scene.
Local SDPI activists claimed it was a coordinated attack by the RSS and the BJP.
The police have initiated an investigation by dispatching investigators to Tamil Nadu, where the killers are thought to have made their getaway.
Following the murder, Director General of Police Anil Kant issued an advisory to all 14 district police chiefs, encouraging them to maintain a high level of alertness within the force.
There are questions about whether this was a revenge killing because a 26-year-old RSS worker, Sanjith, was brutally murdered in November last year in the same region (Ellapully) where this murder took place, allegedly by SDPI activists.
Vijay Sakhre, Additional Director General of Police, left towards Palakkad as soon as news of Sreenivasan’s murder broke.
(with inputs from IANS)
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