A Youth Congress leader was hacked to death allegedly by CPM workers at Mattanur in Kannur district, the police said.
The incident occurred on Monday night when four assailants came in a car and hurled crude bombs and attacked SP Shuhaib and two other party members with machetes, they said.
Shuhaib, the Mattanur block Youth Congress secretary, was at a roadside tea shop at Therur with Riaz and Naushad when the attack happened.
The critically injured Shuhaib was rushed to the Indira Gandhi Co-Operative Hospital at Thalassery where he succumbed, the police said, adding that the injured persons were stable. The police suspect it could be related to the incidents of violence in the area last week.
Cases under sections 307 (attempt to murder), 324 voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons), 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint), 302 (read with 34) of the IPC and sections 3 and 5 of the Explosive Substances Act have been registered.
No one has been arrested in connection with the incident and further investigations were on, the police said. Meanwhile, the Congress called for a dawn-to-dusk hartal in the district on Tuesday against yesterday's attack.
Kannur has witnessed a series of political murders and violence after the LDF government came to power last year.
(With PTI inputs)