Members of Hindutva outfits vandalised four fruit carts owned by poor Muslims on the premises of Nuggikeri Anjaneya Temple premises in Karnataka’s Dharwad district on Saturday.
Sri Ram Sene had reportedly issued a deadline for the body managing the temple to evict the Muslim merchants from the premises 15 days ago. However, the authorities did not consider Sena’s demands and nearly 10 members vandalized carts of Muslims.
Among the four fruit sellers, one 68-year-old Nabisab Killedar, who sold watermelon told THG, “I was fasting that day and a few men came and completely destroyed my watermelon cart. What could I have done? I’m an old man. If I interrupted to stop them, they would’ve beaten me too. So I just stood in a corner, watching them destroying my source of income.”
A video has gone viral on social, in which thrashed watermelons are seen lying on the street.
Journalist Harish Upadhya has tweeted videos from the ground, saying that police present at the site did nothing to stop the culprits. A Hindutva activist, wearing a saffron scarf, is heard telling a policeman that they had given an “ultimatum” to the Muslim sellers. The cops say that they could have informed the police.
Nabisab has been in this fruit business for 15 years, now. However, he works as a watchman in a building in the city and stays in a small room in the basement
“I’ve been selling fruits for 15 years here but there was no problem until now. This is my side business, just to earn some money. But now that is gone. I’m a poor man and thought I would get some income through this but now everything is destroyed.”
The fruit cart seller said he had bought six quintals of watermelon on Saturday. “I had only sold one quintal of watermelon and earned about 300 rupees. I only come here (temple) mostly on Saturdays, the rest of the days I sell it somewhere near the building where I work. By doing this, I earn 300-500 rupees,” he said.
99% of those who had stalls on the temple premises were Hindus and such slots were usually given to poor people, according to reports.
Speaking to THG, Mushtaq, a founding member of the Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR), said, “We’re providing Nabisab free legal support from APCR. He is a poor man. We surveyed his living place too. He lives in the basement of a building with his wife and one son.”
After Killedar filed a complaint with the Dharwad rural police, FIR has been registered against 10 people and four people have been detained late Sunday night for vandalising his fruit cart, the New Indian Express reported.
The police investigated the spot and checked the video footage to trace the miscreants.
The Hindutva group’s actions come days after one fringe Hindu right-wing leader, Chandru Moger, coordinator of the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS) in Bengaluru, called for the economic boycott of Muslims. He urged Hindus to only buy fruits from Hindu vendors to “help end the monopoly of Muslims in the fruit business.”
After the hijab ban campaign, right-wings have been targetting Muslims and calling for their economic boycott, ban of loudspeakers for giving Azaan in mosques, halal meat.
