SAFFRON GROUPS PROTEST AFTER ABVP MEMBER IS KILLED IN KERALA
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Saffron outfits observed a shutdown in north Kerala’s Kannur on Saturday to protest against the alleged political killing of an ABVP members a day before.
On Friday night, 24-year-old Shyamprasad, a member of the RSS’s students’ wing, was hacked to death in the district notorious for clashes between members of Left and right-wing outfits.
Police arrested four men in connection with the murder and said all the accused belonged to the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), the political arm of the fundamentalist outfit Popular Front of India. Police said Shyamprasad’s killing appeared to be in retaliation to an SDPI worker sustaining injuries in a clash between the group’s and RSS’s workers a few days ago.
“The accused were arrested along the Kerala-Karnataka border. They told us it was a retaliatory attack,” said investigating officer K Kuttikrishnan. Police have tightened the security in the district following the murder.
The BJP was quick to mount an attack on Kerala’s ruling Left government, accusing it of prompting extremist outfits to attack workers affiliated with saffron organisations .
Kerala governor Justice Sathasivam criticised the recurring violence in northern Kerala, saying it will sully the state’s image.