Kannur: CPM has called a total shutdown in Thalassery after a 54-year-old party worker was killed in the wee hours of Monday here.
Bike-borne miscreants attacked Haridasan in front of his home as he was returning home around 2 a.m.
They, reportedly first severed his left leg below the knee. His brother, who tried to intervene, was also injured.
An uneasy calm preceded in the area following tension between the CPI(M) and the BJP/RSS workers over a temple festival last week.
Most people in the area woke up to the shocker of a political murder that could mean bouts of murders avenging each death.
Kannur, a hotbed for political murders between CPI(M) and RSS, had long been having a semblance of peace and the murder of 54-year-old Haridasan, by fisherman by trade, could open the lid.
Left Democratic Front convener A Vijayaraghavan termed the murder a calculated move by the RSS/BJP workers to destroy peace in the state.
According to the CPI(M), Haridasan has become the tenth victim in Kannur in the past two years.
"Kannur is going to be the venue of our upcoming party conference and the murder is a calculated move by the Sangh parivar forces. This has come as a shocker and rocked the peaceful atmosphere," Vijayaraghavan told the media at the state party headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram.
M.V.Jayarajan, Kannur CPI-M district secretary, alleged that Haridasan was killed by RSS workers with the knowledge of the top level BJP leaders of the district.
"In an audio clip of a BJP councillor doing rounds in social media, he can be heard saying that CPI-M workers will be taken to tasks," said Jayarajan.
Kannur district BJP president Haridas dismissed the allegations and termed it "baseless".
"The CPI(M) should not name the culprits as that is police's job. There were issues in the area over the conduct of a temple festival. The BJP is a party which does everything to ensure peace prevails," said Haridas.
Kannur, the bastion of the CPI(M), is the home district to both Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and party state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan.