On 18th October 2019, Hindu leader Kamlesh Tiwari was brutally murdered by then unidentified assailants by slitting his throat. Now, the Uttar Pradesh DGP has confirmed that Kamlesh Tiwari’s murder was prima facie due to ‘radicalisation’ and reportedly, the ones in custody have admitted that Kamlesh Tiwari was murdered because of his speech against Prophet Muhammad.
The three persons arrested so far are named Shamim Rashid Pathan, Faizan Pathan and Mohsin Sheikh, Sheikh is a Maulvi by profession.
Read: Kamlesh Tiwari murder case: Gujarat ATS nabs Shamim Pathan, Faizan Pathan and a Maulvi from Surat
Uttar Pradesh DGP has also confirmed that Maulana Anwar-ul-Haq and Mohammed Mufti Naeem Kazmi have been detained and are being questioned about their role in the murder of Kamlesh Tiwari.
The gruesome images of Kamlesh Tiwari’s lifeless body with deep gashes across his throat have haunted everyone since the day of the murder.
As it turns out, only two days before his murder, Kamlesh Tiwari had taken to Facebook to speak about how Uttar Pradesh Intelligence Bureau (UP IB) thought that he was a ‘target for Jihadis’.
In his post on 16th October, two days before he was brutally murdered, Kamlesh Tiwari had written that his party and the ground workers of his party were protesting for the past one week.
A little research shows that Kamlesh Tiwari’s party HSP was protesting against the horrific Murshidabad murders in West Bengal where an entire family was brutally murdered including their 7-year son and 8-month pregnant wife.
Kamlesh Tiwari then says that while the protests were on, he got a call from Uttar Pradesh IB to confirm when he might be travelling to Kolkata. He also wrote that IB had told him that they will need all details from him since he is ‘a target for Jihadis’.
A few days back, a Twitter handle by the name of Kamlesh Tiwari had tweeted a newspaper clipping of a 2018 news item which claimed that ATS has charge-sheeted two Gujarat based ISIS suspects wanted to kill Tiwari.
Kamlesh Tiwari had ruffled several feathers after his 2015 speech where he allegedly ‘insulted’ Prophet Muhammad.
Kamlesh Tiwari was arrested by the then Akhilesh Yadav government for his remarks against Prophet Mohammad’s sexuality in 2015. Muslim groups in Deoband, Saharanpur and West Bengal had launched massive riots and protests demanding Tiwari’s death.
Kamlesh Tiwari had remained in jail or over a year after the National Security Act was slapped on him. In September 2016, the Allahabad HC had finally quashed the NSA charges against him and he was released later. The arrest and subsequent charges on Kamlesh Tiwari over remarks against Prophet Muhammad had caused an outrage in the nation, especially among Hindu groups.
In Kaliachak, Malda, West Bengal, Muslims had engaged in rampant violence and riots while ‘protesting’ against Tiwari’s remarks. Over 2.5 lakh Muslims had gathered in Kaliachak and had looted shops, burnt buses and had set fire to a police station to express their anger over Tiwari’s remarks. Tiwari had stated that Prophet Mohammad was the first homosexual in the world.