Thiruvananthapuram, April 17 : Justifying Opposition leader in Kerala Assembly VD Satheesan’s allegation that Kerala turned into a ‘Goonda Corridor’, the data available with the Home Department shows that 1,019 murders took place in the last 3 years in the State. Reacting to two political murders occurred in Palakkad district within 24 hours, the Opposition leader on Sunday said communal killings, political killings and goonda killings are on the rise in Kerala after the Pinarayi Vijayan-led CPI (M) Government came into power in the State. The communal forces like the SDPI and the RSS are engaged in retaliatory killing for political gain proving the failure of the law and order, he alleged. The recent trends in Kerala show that both the CPI(M) and RSS-BJP workers were the victims of growing influence of Islamic fundamental outfits such as SDPI and PFI in the State, sources said. According to various sources, about 300 people lost their lives due to clashes between CPI(M) and the RSS in Kerala between 1969 and 2016. According to the data in the last 3 years till March 8, 2022, about 83 murders took place in connection with the organised killings by various organisations, it said. About 319 people were murdered in 2019, about 318 in 2020 and 353 in 2021, it said. The ruling political parties and the State Government were not interested to bring out the exact figures of total murders took place between 1969 and 2022 fearing criticism, sources added. In some cases, murders lacking proper evidences were added to the list of unnatural deaths, so the exact figure is not correct, they pointed out. In December 2021, the clashes between the RSS and the SDPI-PFI shocked Kerala following the double political murders that took place within a span of 10 hours in Alappuzha district. Later, the clashes escalated to other districts in the State including Palakkad where four murders were reported in a short period. Meanwhile, senior Congress leader and former State Home Minister Ramesh Chennitala said the religious extremist groups like RSS and SDPI has turned Kerala into a lawless state and the Home Ministry under Pinarayi Vijayan is watching it helplessly as a lame duck. DS SY 1335