A CPI(M) local leader and a RSS worker were killed near Mahe on Monday night.

Mahe and nearby areas remained tense after CPI(M) local leader and former municipal councillor of Mahe Babu Kannippoyil, 45, was hacked to death at Pallur in Mahe on Monday at 10 p.m. An RSS worker, identified as Shanej Parambath, was fatally stabbed by suspected CPI(M) workers at New Mahe in a retaliatory attack.

The police said Babu was found in a pool of blood at 10 p.m. on the way to the Koroth temple bordering Kannur. He was immediately rushed to a hospital at Thalassery, but he was declared ‘brought dead’. The police said no details were available as to the motive of the murder. The CPI(M), however, alleged that the RSS was behind the murder. The police said there were multiple injuries in his neck, back of head, stomach.

The CPI(M) declared a dawn-to-dusk hartal in Mahe and Kannur on Tuesday in protest against the murder.

The RSS worker was stabbed at New Mahe at 10.30 p.m. and he died on the way to Government Medical College Hospital, Kozhikode.

The CPI(M) said that Babu’ s house had come under bomb attack six months ago. The CPI(M) district secretariat said that the murder was proof that the RSS was not prepared to abdicate weapons.

The murder was planned by the RSS after a recent training camp at Koothuparamba, it alleged.