NIA's pan-India raids reveal Islamic State's targets in India are Hindus, Hindu templesAn Intelligence Bureau official says that such hit squads are being formed following a clarion call by the Islamic Courts which have been specifically set up to target Hindus in India.
New Delhi, Aug 10: The nation has witnessed a spate of targeted killings of Hindus in recent months. There have also been targeted attacks on Hindus and its leaders by radical Islamists in addition to violence and vandalism from all the corners of the country.
The Karnataka police, which is probing the killing of BJP worker Praveen Nettar, has learnt that a hit squad was formed by these radical elements. While the squad managed to murder Praveen, they were unsuccessful in murdering two other Hindus who they had identified and placed on their hit-list.
The investigators learnt about the hit squad following the arrests of Abid and Naufal. The accused persons had met several times in Sullia, Karnataka to plan these murders, the police also learnt.
NIA's pan-India raids reveal Islamic State's targets in India are Hindus, Hindu temples
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) too is probing the case. An official that OneIndia spoke with said that similar hit squads had been formed to murder Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur and Umesh Kolhe in Amaravati. On August 4, a 23-year-old man Pratik Pawar was attacked with sharp weapons by a violent mob in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra.
Another common aspect in these murders is that the accused were known to the victim. In Kolhe murder case, it was found that Yusuf Khan and he were good friends. He was the one who forwarded Kolhe's message on Nupur Sharma to some radicals who eventually went on to kill him. Khan had even attended Kolhe's funeral after the murder.
While these are the localised hit-squads, a similar modus operandi has also been found at a larger level. The D-Syndicate has been tasked on numerous occasions by the ISI to carry out targeted hits on Hindus. These cases were reported from states such as Gujarat. In 2016, this syndicate murdered two Hindu leader Pragnesh Mistry and Shirish Bengali. The entire operation was headed by Javed Chikna, a key Dawood Ibrahim man and he had many more leaders from Gujarat on the hit list.
An Intelligence Bureau official says that such hit squads are being formed following a clarion call by the Islamic Courts which have been specifically set up to target Hindus in India.
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The hit-squads or the Dawah team not just carry out murders of the Hindus, but are also tasked with converting them to Islam. Those who oppose it are targeted, the official cited above said while quoting the Ramalingam case in Thanjavur.
In this context, one also has to take into account the killing of Hindu workers Rudresh and Harsha in Karnataka and the murder of Hindu Munnnai worker K P Suresh Kumar.
In 2019 radical Islamists also carried out the killing of a Hindu leader, Kamlesh Tiwari in Surat. He was shot dead by Sheikh Ashfaq Hussain and Pathan Moinuddin Ahmed.
Similar incidents have also been reported from Punjab and these too were carried out by the hit-squads. The murder of Punjab RSS deputy chief, Jagdish Gagnega in Punjab is an example of this. This murder was carried out by the Khalistan Liberation Force at the behest of the ISI.
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The agencies have learnt that the killing of Hindus by the hit squads are part of an international conspiracy and funds for the same have come in from Pakistan, Italy and Canada.