Team Clarion
NEW DELHI – In Karnataka, two Muslim merchants, who were on their routine door-to-door sales of clothes to earn a living, were beaten black and blue with sticks, rods and even swords by a 50-strong mob. After the attack, the Muslim merchants were so badly injured that their condition remained unstable ever since.
The victims, identified as Rafeeq and Ramizuddin, were reportedly waylaid at a deserted place near Kaniyur in the Dakshina Kannada district accusing them of misbehaving with a woman. After the brutal assault, the mob fled the spot leaving them to die. Luckily, some passersby noticed the injured victims and rushed them to a nearby hospital for treatment.
One Twitter user uploaded the incident and said they were bedsheet sellers.
On getting news of the attack, the family members of the victims rushed to the hospital and told media people that they used to go to nearby village for selling clothes.
“On one such occasion they had an argument with a woman customer in Kaniyoor,” said a family member who doubts this could be the reason for the attack.
The victims when felt better spoke to the media. One of the injured reportedly said they were attacked continuously. “We are merchants. We go for business purposes. They beat us fatally. Don’t know which village was that. They said you have no chance here. You will be finished here itself. You won’t come here again,” said one of the victims.
The other victim alleged that even after beating them with rods and sticks, the angry villagers rammed them with bikes. “We were beaten for nearly two hours. The villagers also tried to insert stones behind our backs,” said the other merchant.
The family members of Rafeeq and Ramizuddin tried to lodge a complaint with the Police who, however, were reluctant to register an FIR.
After much outcry from the family members and other relatives, police finally registered a complaint against unnamed persons under sections IPC Section 144, 341, 504, 323, 324, 427 and 149. Police have also registered a complaint under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, against the Muslim businessmen on the basis of a complaint launched by a woman. The woman alleged that Rafeeq and Ramizuddin misbehaved with her.
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Cover photo: Two unconscious Muslim merchants were beaten up by a mob of 50 people in Kaniyur, Karnataka while on their way back home. — Mohammed Irshad Twitter photo
