Leela could barely control her tears when visitors offer condolences over the loss of her grandson. “He left without telling us,” the 75-year-old said.Her grandson Prashanth Poojary, a Bajrang Dal activist, was killed on the morning of October 9, allegedly by a group of 12 machete-wielding Muslim men. The flower seller was attacked near his shop close to the bus stand in Moodbidri in Karnataka’s Dakshina Kannada district. By the time his father and friends could take him to the nearest hospital 35 km away in Mangalore, he was dead.In death, Poojary has made it to the national headlines as yet another casualty of the widening chasm between Hindus and Muslims in the country.Mangaluru Police Commissioner S Murugan says that the accused men were upset over Poojary's efforts to stop the cattle trade in the region. The police have so far arrested eight people and are on the lookout for four others. A senior officer investigating the case alleged that the accused men have links to the Popular Front of India, an affiliate of the Social Democratic Party of India, an organisation that advocates militant Muslim politics.Two weeks after the death, there was still a constant stream of visitors at Poojary’s house in the tiny village of Hosabettu, about 6 km from Moodbidri town. Journalists from Bangalore and Delhi poured in, seeking sound bytes from Poojary’s father. Members of a Bajrang Dal unit from the neighbouring town dropped by to make a payment as a gesture of solidarity. A women’s organisation that stands for “human rights and anti-corruption causes” wanted to change the village’s name to Prashanth Nagar. “We do not wish to be political,” one of them said. “We want communal riots to stop. Hence, we want the village name to be changed to Prashanth Nagar, a name that would stand for peace.”Poojary’s 65-year-old father, Anand Poojary maintained a stoic composure as he spoke to all of them. He lost his cool only when someone asked about visits by politicians.“Everybody from the BJP came," he said. "Everyone from BS Yeddyurappa [former Karnataka chief minister] to Nalin Kumar Katil [Dakshina Kannada MP] came to console us. Not a word from Congressmen. I’m told it’s a reaction. But my son was no big leader. No politician. He was an ordinary boy with a Rs 10 lakh loan. He built this house…They attacked him. Nothing of this sort has been seen in Moodbidri.”The bereaved father then segued into a tirade against the local Muslim community: the Byaaris. He alleged there will no justice because “all the people in power, the judge, the tehsildar and the district collector” are Byaaris.Immediately after Poojary’s death, the local Bajrang Dal unit called a bandh in Moodbidri and vandalised three shops owned by Muslims. “Prashanth was with Bajrang Dal for eight years in service of the Hindu cause,” said Somnath Kotian, the Moodbidri convenor of Bajrang Dal. “He stood up against anti-social elements. He was a protector of cows. Except two-three small cases [mob violence and unlawful assembly], there were absolutely no allegations against him.”Poojary’s friend Sunil nodded in agreement. “This attack was carried out by outsiders,” he said. “Muslims from Moodbidri do not behave this way. In recent times, we have stopped many of these outsiders from stealing cows. They are merciless. They slice the cow up so that they can transport the carcass in a small jeep. My eyes tear up when I imagine it.”As a small crowd gathered around, Sunil showed video clips of the Bajrang Dal’s confrontations with Muslim cattle traders. Poojary could be seen in one of the recent videos, walking away with the rest of the Bajrang Dal group when a policeman intervened. Sunil refused to share the video clips. “You journalists cannot be trusted,” he said.Poojary’s tragic death comes against the backdrop of Bajrang Dal’s long campaign in the region against cow slaughter. Cattle trade, an occupation involving Hindu farmers and Muslim butchers and traders, has been demonised by the Bajrang Dal over the last decade. During this period, there have been numerous attacks on cattle traders. Media attention, however, has been trained on incidents of moral policing by the Sangh Parivar and the Popular Front of India in the districts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi.According to a report of the Karnataka Forum for Communal Harmony, there were 53 reported incidents of moral policing in 2014, where young men and women were attacked for being seen with members of the opposite sex of a different community. The same year, there were 22 cases of attacks on cattle traders allegedly by Bajrang Dal.This year, before Poojary’s murder, there were 11 reported cases of attacks on cattle traders. In fact, as recently as on October 8, a group of 30 Bajrang Dal activists allegedly assaulted Ibrahim Padubidri over a rumour that he was transporting a stolen cow. Padubidi was barely conscious when the police rescued him, about 20 km from Moodbidri. A few days after Poojary’s killing, Vaman Poojary, a coconut seller and the sole eyewitness to the assault, died in suspicious circumstances, allegedly after committing suicide.



Ibrahim Padubidri in hospital.

Communal discord has been simmering in this well-educated, middle-class region for at least two decades. There were minor riots in Mangalore and Udupi during the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, the Surathkal riots in 1997, the Mangalore riots in 2006, and church attacks in Mangalore and Udupi in 2007. The region’s darkest hour came in March 2005 when two cattle traders, Hajabba and Hasanabba, a father and son, were stripped and beaten in Udupi. (They lost the case because, despite photographic evidence, the court expressed doubt that the incident had actually taken place.) In April 2009, 17-year-old Karani Matheen plunged into a river to escape from Bajrang Dal and never surfaced. In May 2006, a farmer, Krishnayya Patali, was beaten to death allegedly by Bajrang Dal for selling his aged cows.In recent times, Bajrang Dal activists have allegedly been intercepting transporters of cattle before tipping off the police, say writers K Phaniraj and G Rajashekhar. The police then arrest the cattle traders on charges of failing to have complied with the strict rules of the Karnataka cow slaughter law. The Karnataka Prevention of Cow Slaughter and Cattle Preservation Act, 1964, prohibits the slaughter of cows, but allows the slaughter of bulls, bullocks and buffaloes. It mandates that the animal must not be tortured during transportation and the vehicle must be a truck.“The law itself is the culprit,” said Phaniraj. “The law is ridiculously impractical. The endless number of permits does not help the cattle traders as the attackers usually tear apart the permits. There are also ambiguities over determining the age of the animal, which the law requires to be aged over 12 years. Only a trained veterinarian can certify the age of the animal. If there’s no veterinarian, one can argue that it falls on the animal to prove its own age.”A senior police officer in Mangalore brushed off allegations that the authorities were partisan, even as he blamed the courts for the low conviction rates in cases of mob violence. “Give us convictions," he said. "We will ensure mob violence comes down tomorrow.”That is no solace for Poojary's parents. They refused to be drawn into larger discussions. After seething against the Byaaris, Prashanth Poojary’s father Anand Poojary calms down, only when a puppy playfully demands his attention. “Prashanth had brought this one very recently," he said.