In a gruesome incident, a BJP worker was murdered in Chikmagalur in Karnataka on Friday night. According to police 44-year-old Mohammed Anwar was on his way home when he was stabbed to death by bike-borne assailants near Gauri canal on the outskirts of the town. Mohammed Anwar was the BJP general secretary of Chikmagalur and was a well-known party worker in that part of the region.
Police confirmed the incident and revealed that they are investigating the incident from all possible angles but are yet to verify that the incident was linked to political motives.
K Annamalai, SP of the district said “It does not look like there are political motives to the incident but our investigation will cover all possible angles. He was allegedly killed around 9:30 pm by two people who came in a bike.”
BJP leader and MP for Chikmagalur and Udupi, Shobha Karandlaje, took to Twitter to claim that fundamentalists had killed Anwar and also staged a dharna in the town on Saturday.
She said in her tweet “General Secretary of Chikmagalur Sri Anwar is killed by bike borne fundamentalists. He already had threat from local fundamental goondas. Highly condemnable!! Called SP Chikmagalur & requested to arrest culprits immediately where is Karnataka heading.
The BJP had called the deaths “political murders”. BJP president Amit Shah had tweeted he was “deeply hurt by the brutal killing of our young party karyakarta.”
The police have registered a case but none of the attackers have been identified so far. According to reports, police said that they were probing the case from all possible angles but prima-facie it appears to be a matter of personal animosity.
Before the Assembly polls BJP leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi criticised Congress Government led by Siddaramaiah for failing to act on the alleged murders of over 20 party activists in the State.
In July 2017, BJP leader and MP from Chikmagalur and Udupi Shobha Karandajle in a letter to Home Minister Rajnath Singh listed 23 men as either ‘Hindu activists’ or members of ‘BJP/RSS’ to have been killed by ‘jehadi elements’ in the state. BJP has been demanding a ban on PFI. Karnataka witnessed communal tensions pre elections and all the three costal districts were on the boil.