By Mohit M Rao
Bengaluru: Between July 2022 and May 2025, a cycle of revenge in southern coastal Karnataka claimed six lives—two Hindu and four Muslim.
The difference was how the state viewed the crimes.
The police registered the deaths of the four Muslim men as murder cases. In contrast, the two Hindu murders were registered under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967 (UAPA), India’s anti-terror law.
The cycle of vengeance started on 21 July 2022, when eight men from the Bajrang Dal reportedly attacked 19-year-old Mohammed B Masood following an altercation over the latter’s purchase of a calf.
A week later, just 5 km away, Praveen Nettaru, a 32-year-old Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) worker, was hacked to death, reportedly as revenge, by members of the Islamic right-wing organisation Popular Front of India.
Two days later, members of Hindu fundamentalist groups hacked down Mohammed Fazil, a 23-year-old daily wage worker outside Mangaluru city, seemingly to avenge Nettaru’s murder.
The trail of blood resumed on 1 May 2025, when Suhas Shetty, who was the prime accused in the murder of Fazil, was killed in an attack reportedly orchestrated by Fazil’s family.
This story was originally published in article-14.com. Read the full story here.