Three communal murders in the last four days have pushed Kasargod, a Kerala district bordering Karnataka, to the edge.

Today, B Suhas, a prominent city lawyer and the district Vice-President of the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, a BJP-affiliated trade union, was stabbed to death as he stepped out of his office.

Prohibitory orders and a total ban on two-wheelers have been imposed in the district. Official sources said police reinforcements were being rushed to the affected areas.

Police sources say the latest eruption in this communally-sensitive district was on Sunday after a man among a bunch of Vishu festival revellers, all BJP supporters, chose to get off a car to urinate near the town bus stand, which was not far from a mosque. Someone objected and an altercation followed, soon drawing a restive crowd. The police say five men followed the BJP men as they moved away, and stabbed one of them, Sandeep Kumar, who died on the way to a local hospital.

The police arrested three men, Abdul Rahman, Mohammed Rafeeq and Sahil Khan for the killing, while two others are absconding.

The BJP called for a district-wide hartal the next day, which saw some Muslim youths on motorcycles being waylaid on the road and attacked, in Karanthakad. Retaliation followed soon enough : Two BJP workers, Krishna Prasad and Chandrahasa Acharya, were stabbed in Mogral, some distance away.

On Wednesday, Mohammed Sinan, who was riding a motorcycle home was waylaid at Anebagilu and stabbed to death.

The entire district had logged out of life today though there was no call for a hartal. Shops were shut and roads were empty. The few buses of the state road transport corporation that were on the road stopped plying after they were attacked in some areas.

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