From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru
Bengaluru, Oct 5: Strongly condemning the murder of BJP worker Mohammed Zubair in Ullal near Mangaluru last evening, former MLC G Madhusudhan and Anwar Manippady have demanded the resignation of Karnataka’s Food and Civil Supplies Minister U T Khader owning moral responsibility for the incident.
"This is the 13th murder of a nationalist in Dakshina Kannada district," the BJP leaders said addressing a news conference in Bengaluru on Thursday.
Zubair was a member of the Ullal Mandal Committee of the BJP and the cold-blooded and brutal murder is highly condemnable, they said.
"We have every reason to suspect that this heinous killing has been perpetrated by the drug mafia," BJP leaders said.
Anwar Manippady
Explaining the cause for this barbaric killing, Anwar Manippady said, Zubair had complained to the police against members of Target Group, a dubious organisation of anti-social elements, who are part of the dreaded drug mafia.
Following Zubair’s complaint, he said some members of the Target Group were arrested and remanded to judicial custody. Recently they had come out of the jail.
"We strongly suspect that the killing has been perpetrated by members of this Target Group," he said demanding the resignation of Khader, the local MLA, owning moral responsibility for the total collapse of law and order in Ullal.
The BJP leaders alleged that Zubair was killed by the associates of one Ilyas, a promiment Youth Congress worker who is also a close confidante of Khader.
"The video grab obtained from the CCTV of a local mosque has shown the gruesome murder. It can also be overheard the conversation of the passers-by that associates of Ilyas are involved in the killing. Khader must go," Anwar Manippady said.
According to the BJP, the impunity with which the murder has been carried out and the felicity with which the killers have escaped was shocking and deplorable.
Urging the state government to hand over this murder to National Investigative Agency (NIA) as the drug mafia has nexus with terrorists, the BJP leaders reiterated that they would mount pressure on the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to set up an office of the NIA in Mangalore in order to keep an eagle’s eye on the sinister and nefarious activities of the anti-national elements in the entire coastal region.