The Sangh Parivar affiliated organisations and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have called a dawn-to-dusk hartal in the State on Tuesday following the killing of a district-level Rashtriya Sweyamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader Elanthottil Manoj reportedly by Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] workers in Kannur on Monday.
The incident occurred at Kizhakke Kathirur, near Thalassery, in the morning. Initially the RSS and BJP had called for a hartal only in Kannur district but later decided to extend it throughout the State. BJP president Amit Shah, who was in Thiruvananthapuram, condemned the killing. Incidentally, the killing of Manoj happened when the BJP president and RSS Sarsanghachalak Mohan Bhagwat were on a visit to the State. Previously, Manoj was targeted by hostile political groups.