A Youth Congress leader was hacked to death in Kerala’s Kannur district on Monday night. A gang of men first threw a crude bomb at 30-year-old Muhammad Shuhaib and two other Youth Congress workers before attacking them with sharp weapons, Mathrubhumi reported.

All three were taken to a nearby hospital, but Shuhaib died on the way.

District Congress Committee President Satheeshan Pacheni has called for a day-long strike in Kannur on Tuesday. He accused the CPI(M) of targeting Shuhaib, but leaders of the Left party in Mattannur said they were not involved in the incident.

According to the police, Shuhaib, who was the Youth Congress president of the Keezhallor mandalam in Kannur district, and his two friends – Noushad, 26, and Riyas, 36 – were standing at a roadside eatery near Mattannur when a four-member gang targeted them, The Indian Express reported.

The men arrived in a van, began to throw crude bombs at the group and then attacked Shuhaib, the police said. Officers told Scroll.in that Shuhaib was murdered to avenge an attack on workers of the Students’ Federation of India – the student wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) – in a high school in Edayannur last week.

“The investigation is on,” a police officer said. “No arrests have been made so far.”