Thiruvananthapuram, Eight workers of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) were taken into custody in connection with the killing of a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) worker in Alappuzha, police said on Thursday.

In a late night skirmish on Wednesday between the activists of the RSS and SDPI at Vayalar near Alappuzha, an RSS worker, identified as 22-year-old Nandu Krishna, was murdered. The police swung into action and detained eight SDPI activists and also recovered swords from them.

The Alappuzha district observed shutdown in response to a day-long call given the BJP and the RSS against the killing.



According to the police, trouble started first on Tuesday, when the RSS activists objected to a collection drive in the locality by the SDPI.

On Wednesday afternoon, a speech made during an SDPI Yatra in the locality was objected to by the RSS workers and soon trouble ensued.

Later in the evening both the parties took out rallies and things went out of control when after 8 p.m. the rival factions clashed. Nandu was hacked, his right hand was reported to have been chopped off and he also had an injury on the back of his head.

He was rushed to a hospital in Ernakulam, but succumbed to injuries. During the clash, three activists from each of the two factions were also injured.

The SDPI is the political outfit of the Popular Front of India (PFI).

State BJP president K.Surendran said, "Kerala was becoming a heaven for Islamic terrorists.

"The police were actually helping the perpetrators of the crime. For long we have been demanding banning PFI," said Surendran.

Alappuzha district is on high alert and police have been deployed in good numbers in and around the place where the incident took place.