Kerala High Court on Friday directed the Alappuzha district collector and police chief to ensure law and order in the town set to witness rival public events by the Muslim Right-wing Popular Front of India and the Bajrang Dal on Saturday.

Justice P.V. Kunhikrishnan admitted a writ petition filed by a senior citizen named R. Ramaraja Varma who had sought an interim relief through a direction against allowing the two groups from holding the public events in the southern Kerala town of Alappuzha in view of the heightened communal tension owing to recent political murders of leaders from both ideologies.

Counsel for the petitioner, Sreekumar G. Chelur, told The Telegraph that the court issued a written order asking the civil and police authorities to ensure no untoward incidents take place in the district on account of the events by two rivals.

“The court directed the district police chief and collector to see to it that there is no law-and-order problem tomorrow,” he said.

While the PFI is scheduled to hold its Jana Maha Sammelanam in the evening, the Bajrang Dal is set to organise a march earlier in the day.

PFI media coordinator Sudheer said such fears were baseless. “There is no law-and-order issue here in Alappuzha. This is our state panel’s meeting to be attended by nearly one lakh workers,” he said.

The events will begin at 4.30pm with a road march culminating at the Alappuzha beach where a public meeting will be held. While an RSS official in charge of Saturday’s event did not respond to calls, a functionary of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad said its march would begin at 10am and would be over well ahead of the PFI event.