Bengaluru: Hundreds of people braved incessant rains in Karnataka’s Dakshina Kannada district Wednesday to take part in a funeral procession. The body of 32-year-old Abdul Rahiman was taken from the hospital to his house and then to a mosque before the last rites were conducted.
“We need justice,” an inconsolable Shabana, his sister, told reporters. “He was involved only in his work and did no wrong to anyone. Those who did this to him should be punished.”
The pick-up truck driver’s was a third murder in the coastal district in nearly a month, in what is emerging as a disturbing pattern of retaliatory killings that haunt the coastal districts of Karnataka including Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Uttara Kannada and Mangaluru city. It was no surprise Rahiman’s last rites procession witnessed heavy police security.
On 17 April, a 35-year-old Kerala resident was lynched by a mob allegedly for chanting pro-Pakistan slogans during a cricket match in Mangaluru’s Kudupu locality, bordering Kerala.
This was followed by the brutal killing of 33-year-old Suhas Shetty, a rowdy-sheeter, in full public view on 1 May at the busy Kinnipadavu locality of the city. As soon as news of Shetty’s murder hit headlines, the Siddaramaiah-led Karnataka government issued orders to form an “anti-communal force,” in the state, potentially nothing like any state has seen so far. This force is yet to become operational, even as tensions in the communally sensitive coastal regions remain dangerously close to spiraling out of control.
“There are some formalities to be completed on how it needs to be formed, who will head it, what powers should these people be given…all of these have to be examined, studied and then be formed. So, yesterday (Wednesday) we have issued a government order to form the anti-communal force,” G. Parameshwara, Karnataka’s minister for home affairs, told reporters Thursday.
Rahiman was attacked Tuesday afternoon by a machete-wielding group of more than 15 people. Another person, Kalandar Shafi, also a pick-up truck diver, was injured in the attack and is under treatment. The police are yet to officially ascertain the motive behind the killing but all fingers point to the possibility of retaliatory murders. According to the FIR registered after the murder, at least 15 people attacked the duo near Kuriyala village.
Deepak, Sumith and 13 other unnamed individuals have been listed as the main accused in the case that has pushed the coastal district on the edge again.
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Random retaliation
Some instances of stone-pelting were reported Wednesday in Surathkal in northern Mangaluru. After Suhas Shetty’s murder too, there were at least three instances of machete-wielding groups trying to attack random strangers in parts of the district, apparently to avenge the killing.
“Unlike in cases involving rowdies, where one gang kills the others’ members because they were involved, here they need a person from the other religion. If it’s a Muslim, they need a Hindu and vice-versa. And in the process, the easiest ones get killed,” said a senior police officer who was posted in the region.
What appears to be a cycle of tit-for-tat killings ostensibly triggered by the killing of 19-year-old Masood B. who was attacked by unidentified people on 19 July, 2022, in Kalinja in Sullia taluk. He died two days later in a hospital. His death did not make headlines but there were those who wanted to avenge his killing.
On July 26 that year, bike-borne assailants hacked to death Praveen Nettaru, a Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BYJM) worker in Bellare village, fuelling tensions. The ruling BJP was unable to give an explanation.
Suhas Shetty was out in vengeance and randomly chose a target.
The next day, Suhas allegedly killed 23-year-old Faizal in the busy Mangalpete locality of Surathkal in the northern part of the coastal district. Adil, Faizal’s brother, now is the main accused in the murder case of Suhas Shetty.
Before that in June 2017, there were clashes triggered by the killing of Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) leader Ashraf Kalayi, fueling a flare-up. This was followed by a fatal attack on Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) worker Sharath Madivala in early July that year.
BJP vs Congress
Congress leader Dinesh Gundu Rao, Karnataka’s minister for health & family welfare, said Wednesday the chain of retaliatory murders was giving the state and district a bad name, and also deterring investors.
Rao, who is also the Dakshina Kannada district minister, said the entire Sangh Parivar ecosystem too was responsible for the situation.
Asked if Rahiman’s killing was another communally motivated murder, Rao said, “Let the entire investigation come out, we are not people who speak out provocatively like the BJP. They have no control over their tongues…have no limit on their tongue. You have seen how they speak, the Sangh Parivar, the BJP and their leaders… if they get the opportunity, they will carry out their politics over a dead body.”
BJP began its 2018 Karnataka assembly election campaign with a tableau in Uttara Kannada’s Ankola, depicting Hindus and cows being killed by Muslims. Shobha Karandlaje, Ananth Kumar Hegde and others participated in the padayatra (foot march) to highlight the alleged systemic targeting of Hindus under Siddaramaiah’s rule.
Karandlaje also released a list of 23 names claiming they were Hindutva workers killed by jihadists. It was found later that several of these people had died of unrelated causes, and some are even alive, according to multiple reports, including police versions.
The Congress and BJP have traded charges, accusing each other of emboldening the other side to carry out these murders. “Some of these people believe that they can do anything under the name of Hindutva. They use religion as a shield for killing someone or making provocative speeches,” Rao said Wednesday.
BJP hit back, accusing the Congress of appeasement.
“There is no system to keep law and order in the state. There are an increasing number of love-jihad cases, terrorism activities. The number of people saying Pakistan Zindabad has also gone up…there is a mindset for retaliatory killings that is not good for the state,” responded R. Ashoka, the Leader of the Opposition in Karnataka. He said Congress’s appeasement politics was the main reason for communal discord in the coastal districts.
Meanwhile, a senior intelligence officer said the killings can be understood only through the lens of politics and local sentiments. “That’s where the entire game is.”
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
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Hindus are not safe in our own country. How is it possible that Muslims can murder Hindus wantonly and get away with it?
Coastal Karnataka has veen a hub of Jihadi terrorism for the last few decades. The town of Bhatkal is infamous across the world as a terror factory. Islamists are running their Islamic fiefdoms in coastal Karnataka. The state government, in it’s pursuit of secular/liberal politics, is aiding and abetting these religious fanatics.