Bengaluru: Tensions are running high in the coastal city of Mangaluru after unknown assailants waylaid and brutally murdered a man in full public view Thursday night, in what appeared to be a retaliatory killing.
The victim has been identified as Suhash Shetty, reportedly an associate of Hindutva outfit Bajrang Dal, and who was allegedly involved in the July 2022 murder of one Fazil.
Soon after the murder, the Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and others called for a bandh Friday, hiking communal tensions in the coastal district. The police have rushed additional forces from other districts and prohibitory orders have been invoked.
CCTV images of the crime, which have been doing the rounds on social media and played on loop by TV news channels, show five-six persons hacking Shetty with machetes and other weapons at one of the busiest intersections of Mangaluru, about 350 km away from Bengaluru.
People aware of developments said Shetty was a history-sheeter, had orchestrated a murder three years ago and Thursday’s fatal attack on him was likely a retaliation.
According to the police, Shetty was travelling in a vehicle along with five others, when they were waylaid at Kinnipadavu cross. The assailants were travelling in a Maruti Swift car and a pickup vehicle.
“The assailants, numbering five to six, attacked Suhash Shetty with deadly weapons, causing grievous injuries. He was immediately rushed to AJ Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries,” the Mangaluru police said in a statement late Thursday.
Anupam Agrawal, Mangaluru police commissioner, said Shetty was involved in the July 2022 murder of Fazil. He had at least five cases registered against him, including four in Mangaluru city limits and one in the district.
These include charges of unlawful assembly, trying to provoke breach of peace, and attempt to murder, among other serious charges, registered between 2016 and 2022.
Thursday’s assault follows last weekend’s brutal mob lynching in Kudupu and has caused concern among the public.
The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Karnataka has pulled up the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government for “emboldening anti-Hindu elements”.
“Goons and anti-social elements who have threatened the law and order of the state are busy in murder, extortion, rape and atrocities. The gruesome murder of Hindu activist Suhash from Mangalore has shocked civil society. The sight of communal anti-Hindu mobs rampaging and killing in the middle of the road is haunting the common people, asking what kind of land we are living in. I strongly condemn this inhuman incident,” B. Y. Vijayendra, state BJP president, said on X.
Sunil Kumar Karkala, senior BJP leader from the region, alleged that the state government was facilitating elements who sloganeer ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ and was allowing the targeting of Hindu activists.
Mangaluru city and three coastal districts of Karnataka are considered Karnataka’s communal hotbed, with tit-for-tat killings between Hindu and Muslim groups.
In mid-2022, there were three such killings over a matter of weeks, which started with the murder of 19-year-old Masood. Soon after, some elements killed BJP youth worker Praveen Nettaru. The murder put the entire coastal region on the edge.
Then, 23-year-old Fazil was killed by masked attackers in the busy Mangalpete locality of Surathkal. A young migrant worker, he was seen standing outside a clothes store when at least four persons wearing full-face caps assaulted him with weapons.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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