'REVENGE KILLINGS', A VICIOUS CYCLE IN DAKSHINA KANNADA FUELLED BY PARTIES

Murder of Suhas, three years after Fazil's killing, has once again brought communal tensions to the fore in the coast

- VINCENT D'SOUZA @Mangaluru

ON July 20, 2022, Masood B, an 18-year-old daily wager, was assaulted by a gang of eight at Kalinja in Sullia taluk of Dakshina Kannada district over a trivial issue and he succumbed a day later in the hospital. Six days later, on the night of July 26, about 40 km away in Bellare, BJP Yuva Morcha leader Praveen Nettaru was murdered by bike-borne assailants. Two days later on July 28, Mohammed Fazil was hacked to death in Katipalla near Mangaluru in tit-for-tat murders.

The victims of these three killings that took place in just nine days neither knew each other nor had anything in common. But all the three murders had a common thread - revenge - which runs deep in coastal Karnataka and is promptly fuelled by religious fanaticism and hate.