Fanaticism, Terror Or Hate Crime? Neighbours of Kanhaiya Lal's Murderers Seek Answers

The ever-crowded Maldas street in Rajasthan’s Udaipur where Hindu and Muslim traders have co-existed for decades and formed part of the economic tapestry remained deserted even a week after the murder of 44-year-old tailor Kanhaiya Lal Teli in the name of defending Islam. 

“Business has been deeply affected,” says Mohammad Hamid, who owns a spray paint shop on the street. His daughter does not like him speaking to the media but he shushes her. “I have lived here all my life. Never have I seen such tension here”.

On the afternoon of June 28, two persons entered Kanhaiya Lal’s shop in the guise of customers and attacked him when he was busy taking measurements. They video-recorded the crime and made it viral. In the video, the accused claimed they had done it in response to Nupur Sharma’s comments on Prophet Mohammad. 

“What those two did was not Islam. But all those who follow Islam are being blamed for it,” Rasul, a local vegetable vendor, tells Outlook. He adds that though markets have started to open under provisional curfew timings, Muslim shops are remaining empty. “There is pressure on locals from certain groups to avoid shops owned by Muslims and boycott Muslim traders,” Rasul says. Communal tensions affect the poor the most, he adds.

Muslims comprise 9.07 percent (62.15 Lakhs) of the total population in Rajasthan (6.85 Crore). Concentrated in urban pockets, many are dependent on trade and tourism for survival. During the Karauli communal violence of April 2, a recent fact-finding report suggests that Muslim traders and shopkeepers in the Boora Batasha market area where the violence was unleashed lost nearly Rs 5 crores in property damage. BJP leader and former Karauli Municipal Council chairperson Rajaram Gurjar, the husband of Jaipur mayor Saumya Gurjar, is one of the 41 accused o the violence. “We cannot afford that kind of damage here,” says Mohammad Hamid.

Terror or Hate?

The crime occurred in Kanhaiya Lal’s shop ‘Supreme Tailors’, not far from where Hamid stays and works. The accused, identified as Mohammad Riyaz Akhtari and Ghaus Mohammad, lived in the Muslim-dominated Khanjipeer area and the victim lived in the Jain-dominated Govardhan Villas. While the latter has seen a string of politicians, Khanjipeer has been barricaded by police on both sides. On the surface, all looks quiet. But the mood in the inner lanes of the derelict neighbourhood is one of unease and disbelief.

“He was a very devout man. He read namaz seven times a day. This was not expected of him,” accused Ghaus Mohammad’s neighbour and friend Pinky Khan tells Outlook. Riyaz, on the other hand, was known to be more fundamentalist in his views. Both advocated purdah for women. Both were married and have children. While Riyaz’s family apparently lived in Bhilwada, where he is originally from, Ghaus was a local and had grown up in Udaipur. “Their family moved here when we were teens. He has two daughters. I wonder what will happen to them,” says Pinky, adding "Ghaus was undeniably a murderer, but I don't believe he was a terrorist."

“Those behind the brutal killing should be definitely be punished in the strictest manner, but is it fair to call them terrorists just because they visited Saudi or had a Pakistani friend? A lot of people here go to Pakistan for Dawat-e-Islami training. It's a religious practice and devotees receive training in the teachings of Islam. Not terrorism,” she adds.

Dawat-e-Islami is a Sunni Islamic organisation based in Pakistan that has several Islamic educational institutions around the world. Led by its founder Ilyasi Qadri, the organisation is known for local charity efforts. It also offers online courses in Islamic studies and runs a television station named Madani Channel. 

Ghaus Mohammad reportedly went to Pakistan in 2014 and received training from Dawat-e-Islami. “Several Muslims go to Pakistan and other countries for religious purposes to do their ‘mureed ’ as followers of Ilyasi. That does not mean every Muslim is a terrorist,” says Shoaib Khan, 31, who currently works in the construction business. 

Khan claims he came to know of Ghaus in 2009 when the two were working for a local newspaper. Ghaus, who studied at a local madrasa and was working in the supply and distribution department as a freelancer, quit the newspaper in 2012 to join Sahara. “I lost contact with him after 2012. I used to sometimes see him at the park with his daughters. I would be visiting with mine. We would often comment on how quickly time has passed,” Khan recalls. 

“I was so shocked when I saw him in that video. Ghaus used to be a logical and gentle man. I don’t know what happened to him,” he adds.

While Ghaus had many friends, Riyaz was more of a lone wolf. A neighbour who had lived close to one of Riyaz’s former rented flats states on condition of anonymity that Riyaz was a disturbed man. “Riyaz would often talk about the supremacy of Islam. He also had patriarchal views about women,” he says.

Riyaz had trouble with his landlords as well. While one claims he did not pay rent on time, another adds he used to bring over friends and smoke. According to reports, Riyaz was in touch with BJP and RSS workers. Images of Riyaz with leaders like Irshad Chainwala and Mohammad Tahir, influential members of the Rajasthan State BJP Minority Morcha and the RSS’s Muslim Rashtriya Manch, have gone viral on social media along with photos of him attending various BJP events.

He has also been photographed with senior BJP leaders like Gulab Chand Kataria, and Ravindra Shrimali from Udaipur. While the party and leaders have distanced themselves from the matter, a grassroots worker with Congress living in Khanjipeer claims on condition of anonymity that Riyaz used to actively participate in political events.

History of Othering

Since the Nupur Sharma controversy, many like Shobai Khan admit that relations between the two communities was tense. “Many Hindus in the area supported Nupur Sharma and a lot of Muslims felt provoked,” he says, adding, “Then there are local WhatsApp groups in both communities that are constantly spewing hate and rumours. Things got out of hand this time”.

Following Nupur Sharma’s statements on Prophet Mohammad, Udaipur like many other parts of the country saw protests by the Muslim community and demands for Sharma’s arrest. But while protests in Udaipur remained largely peaceful, videos of clerics from the revered dargahs of Ajmer giving hate calls against Sharma, with one even demanding her head went viral with a slogan "Sar Tan Se Juda". “Some miscreants trended this awful hashtag and now that’s all the TV channels are playing. I would like to say that not all Muslims feel like that,” says Khan.

Since the killing of Kanhaiya Lal, cases have been filed against the Ajmer clerics. Hate speeches were also given in Boondi. Police in Jodhpur have arrested a man who allegedly threatened a bank clerk for sharing a WhatsApp message in support of Nupur Sharma. Several such arrests in connection to social media posts have been made across Rajasthan. Locals claim that police have been making random raids in areas like Khanjipeer, Kaharwaddi, and other Muslim-dominated areas and detaining youth for questioning. Outside of Rajasthan, the communal killing of a Hindu man in Madhya Pradesh’s Amravati in a similar fashion as the Udaipur killing is being probed for links to the Udaipur case.

In Udaipur, however, concerns about the socio-economic impact of the tailor's killing on Muslims, especially the youth, remain high. Pinky, whose home is located in the middle of Ghaus and Riyaz’s homes, adds that TV media has heavily contributed in fuelling public sentiment against Muslims and portraying them as "outsiders". “They are claiming that all madrasas are teaching jihad, that all Muslims are actually illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. We have been staying here for decades and our kids study in madrasas. It’s the only education we can afford”, Pinky rues. Her husband is an auto driver, one of many who live in Khanjipeer and depend on tourism for livelihood.

Residents say instead of targeting educational institutions and look for elusive terror links, the government needs to look into the reasons behind radicalisation of Muslim youth and work towards their education and socio-economic development. Many feel that inaction against previous cases of communal violence emboldens criminals. “In India, perpetrators of communal violence and disharmony are felicitated by those in power. It sends the wrong message,” says Shoaib Khan, referring to Shambhulal Regar, who contested the Rampur 2019 elections from a ticket by Uttar Pradesh Navnirman Sena. In 2017, Shambhulal Regar hacked to death Mohammad Afrazul and had a teenager record the crime in which he expressed his hate for Muslims in Rajasthan’s Rajasmand district. He shot several other videos that he released online and even after his arrest, a video of him claiming he was not sorry for his actions, apparently shot inside a prison, went viral in 2018. 

Much like Riyaz and Ghaus who allegedly watched videos of ISIS on their phone, Regar reportedly watched fundamentalist right-wing content on his phone including jihadist beheadings. Ripples of the killing reached Udaipur as well in 2017 when a few Hindu groups clashed with police following a rally by Muslims against Regar. The former had waved a saffron flag outside a district court and demanded action against Muslim protesters and support for Regar. In his defense, Regar had later said that he had committed the act to save a Hindu girl from “love jihad”. “If all lives are equal then all those who kill should be judged equally as well,” Khan adds.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) which is probing the killing, had previously ruled out a terror link though reports suggested that the Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) in Rajasthan has found links of Ghaus Mohammad to Pakistanis with terror backgrounds. Since the day of the murder, several Hindi, as well as English news channels, have repeatedly played the violent video of the murder on loop, with suggestive keywords like “terror links”, “madrasas”, “Islamic extremism” thrown in for good measure. While much remains under speculation and investigation are underway, Khanjipeer resident Farooq Quraishi feels that painting an entire population as shadowy with terror links could have an adverse effect on the communal balance in the area as well as on the standard of living in Muslim-dominated areas which already face the burden of economic and civic neglect.

Quraishi adds that in a city where Hindus and Muslims live together, such “othering” can irrevocably harm the communal balance. “If they have terror links, let those be investigated. None of us want to condone communal violence. But unfortunately, my son today knows that Hindus and Muslims are fighting due to TV news and that he is Muslim”. Qureshi’s 9-year-old son has not gone to school since the incident.