Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 16 (IANS): Nearly 24 hours after a Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) activist was murdered in Ellapully of Kerala's Palakkad district, a popular RSS activist was hacked to death by five bike-borne men on Saturday.

Sreenivasan, 45 was attacked in his shop with swords and knives, police said.

Hearing the cries of Sreenivasan, when people came rushing, they saw one person sitting on a bike waiting for his accomplices, who were inside the shop. The attackers then fled on two bikes.

Sreenivasan was a former RSS office-bearer and a key functionary.

Incidentally, it was at the same time Friday that Subair, a 43-year-old activist of SDPI was murdered by a group of men. The SDPI alleged that the attackers were RSS activists.

Subair and his aged father Basheer were returning on a bike after attending Friday prayers at a mosque when a car hit the bike and both of them fell down.

Basheer said that four men came in two cars and hacked his son to death, after which they escaped in one car, leaving the other at the place where the crime took place.

The local SDPI activists alleged that it was a planned attack by the RSS/BJP combine.

The police have launched a probe by sending teams to Tamil Nadu, where the killers are believed to have escaped.

Following the murder, Dir3ector General of Police Anil Kant issued an advisory to all the 14 district police chiefs, urging them to ensure that the force is on high alert.

Doubts are being raised as to whether it was a revenge killing, as in the same area (Ellapully) where this murder took place, a 26-year-old RSS worker, Sanjith, was brutally murdered in November last year, allegedly by the SDPI activists.

As soon as the news of Sreenivasan's murder surfaced, Additional Director General of Police Vijay Sakhre left for Palakkad.