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(Trigger Warning: This piece contains some graphic details of the lynching).
Five days after the Pahalgam terror attack, on 27 April, a 39-year-old ragpicker, Mohammed Ashraf was beaten to death by a mob in Kudupu village, Mangaluru over allegedly raising pro-Pakistan slogans. His family has now raised questions over Ashraf's killing.
Ashraf's body was found by the local police on the kachha road between the Bhatarhalli Devasthana (temple) and a cricket ground.
A fact-finding team by PUCL (People's Union for Civil Liberties), APCR (Association for Protection of Civil Rights) and AILAJ (All India Lawyers Association for Justice) reached Mangaluru to investigate into the case. This piece decodes their findings and our conversation with Ashraf's brother Abdul Jabbar.
"It came to the attention of the fact finding team that in the aftermath of the mob lynching of Mohammed Ashraf and the murder of Suhas Shetty, a number of social media posts baying for blood went viral. Such hate speech is unfortunately commonplace in the region, which has become the Hindutva Laboratory of the South," the team stated.
Ashraf's death occurred in the afternoon between 2 and 5 PM. The Police arrived after being alerted but initially treated the case as an unnatural death, claiming no visible injuries.