Thirty-seven days after the deadly riots hit the DJ Halli and KG Halli areas of Bengaluru, an independent fact-finding committee has brought out chilling testimonies of a few Hindu survivors, which proves how Hindus were selectively hunted and targetted and their homes and vehicles were damaged in the pre-planned and organised riots. These reports have been submitted to Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa for his pursual.

In these testimonies which have been accessed by Times Now, one of the survivors claims that they were given a warning in Urdu and were told to move inside their homes or else they can get killed. The survivor says that during the Bengaluru riots, none of the cars belonging to either Muslims or bearing a star or an HKGN (Hazrath Khwaja Garib Nawaz) symbol was not attacked. The rioters went to the extent of lifting the covers of the cars parked on the road to ascertain who’s car was it before attacking it.

He furthers that the rioters made sure to launch attacks in blind spots- those which were not covered by CCTV. This means that locals were involved who knew about these blind spots, claimed the survivor. The rioters had made sure that only non-Muslims are targetted. “Except Muslims, each and everyone, including every vehicle belonging to a non-Muslim was attacked and damaged”.

He continues that he had witnessed many houses along that road that remained untouched, implying that those belonged to the Muslims that’s why they remained unharmed. The survivor said that the rioters were shouting across the street in Urdu asking everyone to rush back to their respective houses or face consequences. “They warned us about the violence in Urdu and asked us to get inside or else we will be killed”.

Saying so, he affirmed that the people there are not associated with the BJP or the Congress.

The second survivor in his testimony specifies that on the day of the riots in Bengaluru, no Muslims vehicle was parked along that entire stretch. The road, which is generally only used by them, did not see a single Muslim person commuting on the day of the riot. None of the Muslims houses or Muslim vehicles were damaged in the ensuing. Their vehicles were deliberately not parked there that night, alludes the second survivor.

In the other two following testimonies the survivors clearly explain why they think they were singled out, identified and then targetted.

One person testified how the rioters first destroyed the CCTV cameras on the road before attacking their houses. On being asked as to why they think they were targetted, the survivor says that his house was targetted because he lit diyas after Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for lamps to be lit for 9 minutes at 9 pm on April 5 ‘to defeat despair of coronavirus’.

The survivor recollects that he had confronted one particuler house in their area which did not lit diyas on that day. They had even filed a case against him. The survivor says that possibly that particular family had informed someone about that incident, thats why his house came under attack.

Meanwhile, the fourth person confirmed that the area which had come under the attack, was predominantly a non-Muslim area with mostly Tamilians, Kannadigas, maximum Hindus residing there. He said that the rioters were mostly not in their senses. He says he has a feeling that most of them were intoxicated, had consumed drugs.

Basically all these testimonies establish that the attacks in Bengaluru were pre-planned, well-organised and particularized to target one particular community- Hindus.

SDPI and PFI were involved in the planning and execution of the incident: Fact-finding report

In fact, earlier, in its report, the fact-finding committee had also said that the riots were pre-planned and organised and specifically targeted certain Hindus in the area. It has also said that the rioting bore a stark resemblance to the violence witnessed in Delhi earlier this year and in Sweden more recently. The fact-finding committee also discovered that the local populace was actively involved in the execution of the riots and also had prior knowledge about it. The Committee also said that SDPI and PFI were involved in the planning and execution of the incident. 

Apart from monitoring the activities of PFI and SDPI, the Committee also said that the Karnataka Government must constitute a committee to study the source of religious extremism in the state. It was also of the opinion that demographic changes in major cities in the state should be studied and the role of illegal immigrants should be investigated in the rioting.

The Bengaluru Riots

A Muslim mob went on a rampage and unleashed extreme violence in Bengaluru on the 11th of August over a Facebook post that was allegedly derogatory to Prophet Mohammad. Subsequently, FIRs have been filed which names five individuals who are said to have led a mob of 200-300 on that particular day.

Three people were killed and more than 60 police personnel were injured in the stone-pelting and the subsequent riots unleashed by the irate Muslim mobs. At least 10 vehicles, including Innovas of two DCPs, were damaged in front of the stations. The mob also set fire to the vehicles in front of the DJ Halli police station.