Prohibitory orders have been imposed in parts of Mangaluru after a 23-year-old was fatally attacked by a group of unidentified people wearing full-face masks on Thursday evening, adding to the tense atmosphere in the coastal city 350km from state capital where a local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Praveen Nettaru, 32, was killed two days ago, police said on Friday.
“The prohibitory orders have been imposed from Thursday night till July 30 morning,” Mangaluru Police Commissioner N Shashikumar said.
Police said security has been beefed up in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts in view of the tense situation. Schools and colleges in Suratkal, Bajpe, Mulki and Pannambur police station limits will remain closed today.
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said he would hold a meeting with senior police officials to review security situation in 55 places along the Karnataka-Kerala border.
In the CCTV videos that have been doing the rounds on social media, the victim, identified by the police as Fazil, is seen standing outside a cloth shop in Mangalore’s Surathkal with another person when some unknown people hacked him.
Suddenly, about three people are seen attacking Fazil from behind, running away briefly and then returning to continue the assault even as mannequins placed outside fell over him.
“About three to four people have come and assaulted him (and) this is the information we have… This area is considered to be very sensitive in respect of these kinds of incidents,” additional director general of police, law and order, Alok Kumar said on Thursday evening after the murder was reported at 8pm.
The Mangaluru Police haven’t been able to establish the identity of the masked men. Or if Fazil’s murder was linked to Nettaru’s killing.
On Thursday, two men with suspected links to the Popular Front of India (PFI) were arrested in connection with Nettaru’s murder in Karnataka’s Dakshina Kannada district.
The Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), the political wing of the Popular Front of India (PFI) which has been blamed for Nettaru’s murder by leaders of the ruling BJP, hit back at the saffron party.
Aboobakkar Kulai, the district president of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) told Kannada RV news channels on Friday morning: “On July 28, last evening, three youngsters with RSS background came in a car and brutally killed Fazil, an innocent boy who had not identified with any organisation or group and was a service-minded person. I vehemently condemn this murder”.
“This BJP government is doing politics on these dead bodies,” he added, stating that there were political forces behind the murder.
Locals speculated that Fazil was killed in a possible case of mistaken identity as the attackers are said to have originally planned to target Majid, a former Popular Front of India (PFI) worker who runs a mobile shop next to where Fazil was killed. However, the police are yet to confirm this angle.
(With PTI inputs)
