New Delhi, May 19 (PTI): Three CPI(M) workers were arrested on Saturday in connection with the recent killing of a BJP worker in New Mahe at Kannur in Kerala, police said.

The three were picked up from a lodge in Kozhikode district late last night and arrested this morning, they said. Shamij (40) was pulled out of his auto-rickshaw and hacked to death on May 7 by a six-member gang, hours after the killing of CPI(M) local leader Babu in adjacent Mahe, an enclave of Union Territory Puducherry.

In total, there are eight accused in the case related to the killing of Shamji, police said, adding that a search was on for five others who are at large. The Puducherry Police had last week arrested three persons in connection with the killing of Babu and said the incident was a fallout of long-standing enmity between him and the accused.

Tension gripped the area after the twin murder. Both the Kerala and the Puducherry police had deployed additional personnel in the area to prevent any further untoward incident.

The killings shattered the four-month long lull in political violence involving workers of the ruling CPI(M), and the BJP and RSS workers in the Kannur region.