Mohammad Gaus and Mohammad Riyaz, the murderers of Kanhaiya Lal who brutally beheaded him, reportedly participated in protests in early June that were organised against former Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Nupur Sharma’s remarks on Prophet Muhammad. It is after these protests that they were selected by their operators in Pakistan to be employed to kill people like Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur for supporting Nupur Sharma.
According to an Indian Express report, the killing of Kanhaiya Lal Teli in Udaipur was deliberately planned and prompted by a person in Pakistan identified as “Salman Bhai,” who told one of the accused, Mohammad Gaus, that he needed to do ‘something spectacular’ in response to the remarks on the Prophet because peaceful protests would not work.
According to reports, Gaus had earlier traveled to Pakistan in December 2014 at the invitation of Dawat-e-Islami, a Pakistan-based extremist Islamist outfit. After returning to Udaipur in January 2015, Gaus joined a few WhatsApp groups and communicated with “Salman Bhai” and another individual in Pakistan, named Abu Ibrahim.
As per the initial investigation conducted by the NIA, Gaus and Riyaz began plotting the attack on Kanhaiya Lal a couple of weeks before his murder. They are reported to have confessed to the investigating agency that a person named “Babla Bhai,” who hails from the Dhanmandi neighbourhood where Kanhaiya Lal’s ‘Supreme Tailors’ was located, had targeted 10-11 persons and formed separate groups to attack them.
The initial interrogation of Gaus and Riyaz also indicates that images and data of a few persons were disseminated on local WhatsApp groups consisting of Muslim members two-three weeks prior to the incident. Kanhaiya Lal’s photo and other information about him were also circulated in one of these groups, according to Indian Express.
While Gaus and Riyaz chose Kanhaiya Lal as their target since his shop was close to their place of employment, reports suggest that Muslims in the locality actively supported them. Prior to the June 28 attack, two of them, Wasim and Mohsin Khan, reportedly performed reconnaissance of Kanhaiya Lal’s shop. Mohsin and another fellow named Asif Hussain were both arrested on Friday for their role in the murder. There is no information available on Wasim.
Following the killing, Gaus and Riyaz visited one Shoaib Bhai and shot another video while still wearing the same clothes. Riyaz shared this video, in which they threatened to murder Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on several local WhatsApp groups. Later, the two accused went to a different person’s workshop to change their attire. Then they planned to escape to Ajmer Sharif on Riyaz’s motorcycle. However, the police at Bhim in the Rajsamand district stopped them mid-way and apprehended them.
All these series of incidents clearly indicate that this was a well-planned and executed murder. These two Islamists attended protests against Nupur Sharma prior to plotting the murder of Kanhaiya Lal, from where they were identified as potential murderers. It is noteworthy how the violent protests against Nupur Sharma were championed by Islamists and liberals as a ‘democratic and peaceful’ method of conveying dissent, but in a clandestine manner, they were used to stir up hatred, and choose people to initiate social strife and unleash terror in society.
The involvement of Riyaz and Gaus in protests prior to the killing of Kanhaiya Lal reveals the dangers of these unruly protests that exploded in the country. These protests are used by Islamists and liberals to identify their foot-soldiers who can sow discord in the country and peddle their agenda of hatred, more particularly, Hindu hatred.
