Karnataka: Several Muslim Congress leaders quit posts, cite failure to curb communal violence

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30-05-2025

Several Muslim leaders from the Karnataka Congress resigned from their posts on Thursday to protest the alleged failure of the state government to contain communal violence in the Dakshina Kannada district, The Indian Express reported.
Those who resigned included Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee General Secretary MS Mohammed and Dakshina Kannada District Minority Wing chief KK Shahul Hameed.
The resignations came in the wake of the murder of a man named Abdul Rahim in Bantwal near Mangaluru on Tuesday. Rahim's friend and co-worker was also injured in the incident.
On Thursday, the party leaders announced their resignations at an emergency meeting convened in Mangaluru's Bolara area, The Hindu reported. While the leaders had initially discussed waiting a few days for the response of the state government, party workers forced them to announce their resignations.
During the meeting, Hameed told party workers that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had urged the community leaders not to take any hasty decisions, adding that the matter had reached the party high command. However, the workers demanded that the leaders tender their resignation.
The leaders, including several district and booth-level workers, then decided to quit.
Hameed told party workers the Congress government in Karnataka had failed to rein in the Bharatiya Janata Party and Sangh Parivar's 'harassment' of Muslims even after the minority community had stood with the party during times of trouble, The Indian Express reported.
'Even our mothers, wives and children are asking why we are with the Congress when they cannot protect Muslims,' The Indian Express quoted the Congress leader as having said before announcing his resignation.
The region has seen three murders over the past few weeks.
On April 27, a 36-year-old man from Kerala named Ashraf was lynched in Mangaluru after he allegedly shouted pro-Pakistan slogans during a cricket match.
On May 11, a Hindutva activist named Suhas Shetty was murdered. Eleven persons were arrested for the killing, The Indian Express reported. Shetty, who had five cases against him, was a prime accused in the murder of a person named Mohammed Fazil in Surathkal in July 2022.
In Tuesday's incident, Rahim was killed while unloading sand near a customer's house, according to the newspaper. His friend and co-worker, Kalandar Shafi, was severely injured in the attack.
On Thursday, the police said that three men, 21-year-old Deepak Poojary, 21-year-old Prithviraj and 19-year-old Chiranthan, had been arrested for Rahim's murder, The Indian Express reported.
The reason for the killing was yet to ascertained.