Right-wing worker hacked to death

Parts of coastal Karnataka were tense on Friday following the murder of right-wing activist Suhas Shetty in Mangaluru, with authorities issuing prohibitory orders over concerns about escalating communal tensions in the region.

- Arun Dev

BENGALURU: Parts of coastal Karnataka were tense on Friday following the murder of right-wing activist Suhas Shetty in Mangaluru, with authorities issuing prohibitory orders over concerns about escalating communal tensions in the region.

Police said that Shetty was travelling with five of his associates near Kinnikambla in Bajpe area of Mangaluru on Thursday night when their vehicle was intercepted by unidentified assailants, who then dragged the 30-year-old out of the vehicle and hacked him to death.

"Last night at around 8.30pm, Suhas Shetty was killed by five to six unidentified assailants," Mangaluru police commissioner Anupam Agrawal said, adding that the incident was recorded on nearby CCTV cameras and efforts were on to locate the accused.

Shetty was facing five criminal cases in Mangaluru and Dakshina Kannada districts, including two charges of murder. He was named as the prime accused in the murder of 23-year-old Mohammed Fazil, a temporary worker at HPCL, who was killed on July 28, 2022 in Surathkal. That killing had taken place just two days after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) youth worker Praveen Nettaru was murdered, igniting widespread protests and unrest across the region.