Sangh Parivar organisations have jointly called for a hartal in Thiruvananthapuram tomorrow to protest the murder of an RSS and Hindu Aikya Vedi leader this morning, suspectedly by activists of a radical outfit. Sunil Kumar was killed early morning today at Kilimanoor, near the state capital.The Vishva Hindu Parishad claimed in an official statement that the murder was part of a plan hatched by Islamic militants. The statement went on to say it could be the ‘‘harbinger of an imminent communal catastrophe in Kerala’’. The statement also said the Muslim militant group’s battle with the CPI(M) in north Kerala and RSS in the south was part of a larger conspiracy.The BJP statement, endorsing the hartal tomorrow, squarely blamed the ultra-radical Muslim outfit, National Development Front (NDF), for the killing. But while NDF general secretary Naziruddeen Elamaram claimed to The Indian Express that his outfit had no role in it, police sources indicated that they had reason to believe the killing was the NDF’s handiwork, though no arrests have yet been made.The deceased, Sunil Kumar, was district secretary of the Hindu Aikya Vedi and taluk karyavahak of the RSS in Chirayinkeezhu. He was also the local agent for the BJP’s Malayalam mouthpiece Janmabhumi, and was reportedly killed while going to pick up the newspaper bundles at about 5.30 am.Police said five masked men in a Qualis car waylaid and hacked Kumar, before speeding away. Kumar was later declared dead on arrival at the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital, where he was rushed to by locals. Eyewitnesses had passed on the car’s registration number to the cops, who later found it to be fake.
