Will we be hanged or sent to life imprisonment? Udaipur killers ask
The brainwashed Islamist killers of the Udaipur tailor have only one fundamental question from their NIA interrogators: will we be hanged or given life imprisonment for our crime by the court? On June 28, Riyaz Attari and Ghous Mohammed enacted an ISIS-style killing on tailor Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur for supporting Nupur Sharma.
The internal security agencies are alarmed at the level of radicalization of the killers and their accomplices as they are unrepentant about the savage crime, they committed but only worried about the punishment they will face for the murder.
The killer duo and their accomplices are currently under NIA custody even as the investigations reveal that the decision to murder Kanhaiya Lal was taken about a week before the crime with Ghous Mohammed volunteering to do the act of murder using the butcher knives crafted by welder Riyaz Attari. Both Riyaz and Ghous are Sufi Barelvi Muslims and were arrested while on their way to Ajmer Dargah to shoot a video claiming the dastardly crime.
Meanwhile, the Amravati killers of pharmacist Umesh Kolhe, who was done to death again for supporting Nupur Sharma, will be handed over to NIA custody after DG (NIA) Dinkar Gupta spoke to Maharashtra DGP Rajnish Seth for completion of custody transfer. While the Amravati Police Commissioner may claim that the murder of Kolhe was shown as robbery due to the sensitive and blind nature of the case, fact is that it took local police a full week to arrest the main accused despite having two of his accomplices in custody within a couple of days of the savage crime. While the investigation is still on, links with Islamist organizations in India who are the face of banned Muslim Brotherhood have come out at a preliminary stage.
The two savage crimes within a span of a week indicate rising religious fundamentalism in India, prompted by extremist organizations across the borders in Af-Pak region. “Religious extremism is a full-fledged industry in Pakistan with these organizations not only radicalizing the entire sub-continent in the name of conservative Islam but also caring two hoots for the law of the land,” said an Indian counter-terrorism official.
As a result of the Amravati and Udaipur killings, the threat level in the country is on a high as further violence by the Barelvis in the name of supporting Nupur Sharma is not ruled out.