A young man was hacked to death in full public view in Mangalore city late on Thursday evening, marking the third murder in a week in what appears a chain of revenge killings in Dakshina Kannada district.

The killing of Mohammed Fazil, 23, in the busy shopping district of Suratkal came two days after a BJP Yuva Morcha worker, Praveen Nettaru, 31, was hacked outside his poultry shop in Bellare and died in hospital.

On June 21, an 18-year-old house painter, Masud, died of head injuries suffered in a rod-and-soda-bottle attack two days earlier by alleged VHP workers in Kalanja.

Security camera footage shows Fazil loitering near a textile shop before four men attack him and continue to hack at him as he collapses, as bystanders run helter-skelter. Police said they had additional footage showing the suspected killers escaping in a car.

The police have yet to confirm a connection between the three murders.

The district administration has banned assemblies of more than four people in Mangalore city till 6am on Saturday, and asked all educational institutions to remain closed during this period.

A heavy deployment of police kept close watch as more than 3,000 people participated in Fazil’s funeral procession that covered several kilometres.

Mangalore police commissioner N. Shashi Kumar said Fazil was not a member of any organisation, nor did he have a criminal background. Nor did Masud have any political affiliations or criminal history, officers have said, and no clear motive has been cited for his murder.

The state’s BJP government has announced a Rs 25-lakh compensation for the family of Nettaru but nothing so far for the families of Masud and Fazil.

Chief minister Basavaraj Bommai has denied that his government is handling murder cases differently based on the religion of the victims. “The police have been directed to treat all three cases with equal importance,” he said.

Bommai had on Thursday said, referring to Nettaru’s murder, that Karnataka might need to adopt the “Yogi Adityanath model” to handle such crimes. Adityanath’s government has demolished allegedly illegal properties of many Muslims after branding them rioters.

Asked by reporters about that remark and the criticism it has attracted, Bommai on Friday said: “As and when required, as per the frame of law, we will take all actions. It might be the Uttar Pradesh model or the Karnataka model.”

The Congress and the BJP traded barbs over whose government had handled communal violence better.