A Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh worker was attacked near Thalassery in Kerala’s Kannur district on Sunday, PTI reported. Nidesh is in critical condition and has been admitted to the Kozhikode Medical College Hospital, the police said.

The 28-year-old’s hands and legs were injured after he was attacked around 5.30 pm on a road near Muzhuppilangad Beach, the police said. The local Bharatiya Janata Party unit alleged that the Communist Party of India (Marxist) was behind the attack.

Kannur has been the hotbed of political clashes in Kerala. According to the police, there were 69 political murders in the district between 2000 and 2016, with 31 victims from the Sangh and 30 from the Left party.

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On October 11, a group of unidentified people had attacked an RSS worker in the district. In a separate incident the same day, bombs were also hurled at the BJP office in the district.

Meanwhile, the BJP’s National General Secretary Saroj Pandey on Sunday said that if her party workers continued to be killed or targeted in Kerala, then the “eyes of the attackers will be gouged out”, PTI reported. She said the purpose of the BJP’s Jan Raksha Yatra was too let the attackers know this.

Pandey claimed that the party has 11 crore members around the world, and that more than 300 workers between 20 and 25 years of age were killed in Kerala. “Everybody has the right to present their thoughts, but I believe politics should not be done like this,” she said.

On October 3, the BJP launched the Jana Raksha Yatra from Kannur, blaming the CPI(M) for the political violence in the state. Party National President Amit Shah had held Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan directly responsible for the attacks. While leading a march in Delhi on October 8, he had said that “politics of violence” was in the nature of communists.