By Shaik Zakeer Hussain, TwoCircles.net,
Bangalore: “Mission Possible”, a Bangalore based umbrella body of over 9 different Muslim organisations, held a press conference here today, calling for justice and fair trial in the killing of a 23 year old Muslim youth by Karnataka’s Anti-Naxal Force (ANF). Following a similar stance taken by civil right groups and many other Muslim organisations, the group called the killing of the youth as an act of ‘extra judicial murder’ of an innocent individual, which has snowballed into a major controversy in the state, and has raised questions at the very integrity of the special task force.
The fateful incident took place on 19th April, when Mohammed Kabeer, a cattle trader by profession, along with his cousin Rafiq and neighbours Pramod, Sarfaraz and Umar Farooq, left his house in a pick up truck carrying cattle. According to Rafiq, the ANF personnel stopped them at a forest check-post on the Sringeri-Karkala route, some 100 km from Mangalore city and were asked for documents for transporting the animals. Rafiq says, when he got down to show them the papers, he heard gunshots fired at Kabeer’s direction, who according to him, was still sitting in the truck, when he had left him to meet the police personnel.
Upon hearing the gun shots, Rafiq, Sarfaraz and the truck driver Pramod, fled the scene, while Umar Farooq was taken into custody by the ANF. Kabeer had died on the spot. Rafiq alleges that his cousin was asked to get down from the truck, and was killed in cold blood.
ANF, however, have questioned the statements of the youths, and claims that they mistook Kabeer for a Naxalite because he tried to flee when confronted. In another statement they alleged that the youths pelted stones at them, when they were asked to stop the vehicle.
Civil rights group such as Karnataka Komu Souharda Vedike have stated that by killing Kabeer, the police want to send a warning to all those individuals who are involved in cattle trading in the area. Incidentally, Mangalore’s recent past has been mired with incidents, where police personnel either under pressure from right wing organisations, or according to some rights activists even in collusion with them, have lead a crackdown on cattle trading, seriously hitting the trade of individuals, majority of who belong to the Muslim community.
The incident took an ugly turn, when members of the family went to collect his body at the hospital, when members of Bajrang Dal, pelted stones at the aggrieved family members giving an already aggravated incident a communal blend. In the subsequent press meets, Bajrang Dal and other right wing organisations have praised the killing of Kabeer, and Swami Pranavananda, a Hindutva pontiff even announced Rs 1 lakh cash reward to the ANF personnel who killed him.
Muslim and various civil right groups have lead a series of protests in different parts of the state, and had demanded a CBI probe into the killing. Karnataka Home Minister K J George, who had earlier refused to hand over the case to the CBI, arguing that it would demoralise his department, has since then relented to public pressure and outrage. Ironically, his earlier stance had put him in the same line as the BJP, who has asked for the murder case against the Anti-Naxal Force (ANF) constable who gunned down Kabeer to be withdrawn. The Anti-Naxal Force (ANF) constable Naveen G Naik, has been taken under custody by a team of Crime Investigation Department (CID).
Hitting out at Bajrang Dal, and other right wing forces, “Mission Possible’s” spokesperson Ashraf Ali Khan, told media that communal elements have turned the event into an opportunity to polarize communities on communal lines, when the case should be looked from a criminal angle, as far as the police killing is concerned. He said that the special task force personnel have misused the power given to them, in a manner, which is detrimental to peace and harmony in the country, and warned that communal groups want to break up a delicate social fabric, which is already already under threat. The group called for the arrest of Swami Pranavananda, who, they argued is dangerous to the very idea of India. They asked all right minded forces in the country to jointly combat right wing forces in the country to protect its plural nature.