While the family members of Hindutva activist Harsha are far from coming to terms with his brutal killing, the residents of many localities in Shivamogga city are still in shock over how they suddenly became targets of violence during his funeral procession.
Miscreants, a majority of whom were part of the procession on Monday, threw stones at houses and burnt several vehicles. The victims, many of them daily wagers, have no clue when their lives will get back to normal.
“We were inside the house when the mob started throwing stones at our front door,” narrated Ayesha Farhana of Imam Bada (Murad Nagar). The locality is a few metres away from Kumbara Beedi, where Harsha’s house is located. Within minutes after his body was brought to his place, hundreds of people gathered in the locality. “Doors were broken. We were worried that the crowd may enter our homes”, said Ms. Farhana.
The miscreants smashed the two-wheeler parked in front of her house and moved towards a luggage carrier, parked a few metres away. “There were hardly three-four policemen in our locality when hundreds of people threw stones at us,” said Ansar, whose house is close to Hazrat Syed Diwan Sham Hussain Makan, the place where they conduct prayers during Muharram.
Many of those who suffered loss during the violence are construction workers and autorickshaw drivers. “Who will compensate our loss? My luggage carrier has been damaged. I don’t know when I can get back to work,” said Zabi. Basha Saheb, a senior citizen in the locality, said whoever killed Harsha should be punished. “But I don’t know why we, the poor people, are being punished in this way,” he said.
Business community worried
The business establishments, which have not fully recovered from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, have been closed again due to the prohibitory orders in the city. The business community wants peace restored at the earliest so that they transact normally.
N. Gopinath, president of Shivamogga district unit of the Chamber of Commerce of Industries, said in the last three phases of the pandemic, the hotels and business establishments were open only for six months. They had just begun to be normal when the unfortunate incident happened in the city. “We are appealing to the district administration to limit the prohibitory orders in the sensitive areas so that business in other areas could be normal,” he said. There are more than 14,500 traders in the city.
