The National Human Rights Commission on Friday sent notices to the Kerala government and the director general of police about the gruesome political violence in the state, PTI reported. The commission gave them four weeks to submit a report on the matter and asked them to take steps to curb the incidents.

The NHRC said violence in the name of political and ideological differences “is neither ethical nor acceptable in a civilised society”. “The brutal killing of the party workers are indicative of growing rivalry among the workers of different parties and poor state of law and order situation in the state of Kerala,” the NHRC said.

The rights panel had issued a notice to the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left government in Kerala on January 25, after taking suo motu cognisance of the matter based on reports of workers from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bharatiya Janata Party being killed. The panel had demanded a report from the chief secretary asking if any relief had been granted to the victims or their families, which it later said it had not received.

Violent political conflict

A spate of violent attacks have been reported recently between the BJP-RSS alliance and the ruling CPI(M). There have been several political murders in Kerala since the Left Democratic Front government came to power in May 2016, with the victims coming from both sides. The RSS and the CPI(M) have blamed each other for the bloodshed.

On July 29, an RSS worker in Kerala died after his attackers chopped his palm off. CPI(M) workers were suspected to have been involved in the attack.