Section 144 was imposed in Kerala‘s coastal Alappuzha district on Sunday following the killings of two party leaders, the first belonging to the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) and the second to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). 

K S Shan, the state secretary of the SDPI in Kerala, was attacked on Saturday night while he was on his way back home. A car rammed into his bike and as he fell down, the assailants assaulted him. Shan succumbed to his injuries at a Kochi hospital around midnight. His party alleged that the RSS was behind the attack.

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SDPI state general secretary PK Usman said, “KS Shan was brutally murdered by RSS workers. The murder happened after a meeting held in Alappuzha under Valsan Thillankeri. They are using this tactic to scare the minorities in the state. They are trying to destroy SDPI. Two attacks were planned by RSS on the day. One against the SDPI state general secretary and the other against activist Bindu Ammini. The involvement of Valsan Thillankeri is clear and all concerned should be arrested. As a democratic party, we demand the arrest of all concerned as soon as possible.”

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Hours later, BJP’s OBC Morcha’s state secretary Ranjeet Sreenivas was hacked to death by some assailants who barged into his house on Sunday morning. 

Police suspect the attack on Sreenivas was in retaliation to the killing of Shan.

With the BJP’s leader’s killing, prohibitory order was clamped.

Meanwhile, Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala reacted to the incident, blaming the police for recurring political murders.

“It seems both are planned killings. Police should give a free hand to investigate such murders,” he said.