Pics: Spoorthi Ullal
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (ANK)

Mangaluru, Dec 13: Vishwa Hindu Parishat (VHP) and Bajrang Dal on Wednesday December 13 staged a protest near DC's office condemning the death of Paresh Mesta in Honnavar. Mesta's suspicious death, termed 'murder' by BJP and right-wing outfits, has stirred violence and strong protests in Uttara Kannada district especially in Kumta and Sirsi. The protestors demanded NIA probe into the case and also the resignation of home minister Ramalinga Reddy.

Addressing the protestors, Bajrang Dal leader Sharan Pumpwell said, "21-year-old Paresh Mesta went missing after the clash on December 6, and a day later his body was found floating in a lake. His body was found to have been castrated, burnt, and his head was mutilated with a sword. On December 6, an accident triggered the clash, and on the same day there was no power at Honnavar. At the same time, Muslim goondas vandalised the market and since then Paresh Mesta went missing.

"The state government has termed the incident as communal violence, but only Hindu activists are attacked and killed. In the past 5 years, 19 Hindu activist have been killed and attacked. This is not communal violence as only the Hindu community is being targetted. Those who talk against cow slaughter are attacked. There has been bias in providing justice. Refering to the violence at Honnavar the home minister had said that Mesta's death is being made into a big issue unncessarily. Similar statements were passed even at the time of Prashanth Poojary, Rudresh, and Sharath Madivala murders. We demand the resignation of home minister as he is not fit to hold that position," he said.

"If the government fails to provide justice then we will call for bandh even in Mangaluru, similar to the bandh we saw in Honnavar, Kumta and Sirsi. These Muslim goondas are trying to test our patience. For the sake of Islam if your are doing Jihad then even we are ready to fight for the sake of our country and religion. PFI and SDPI are involved in several killings but Muslim leaders have prefered to remain silent instead of raising voice against PFI and SDPI. This evokes suspicions of Muslim leaders' involvement with these organisations. We urge Muslim leaders to join hands in banning these organisations. If you do that, we will appreciate your patriotism towards the country," Sharan Pumpwell said.

VHP district president Jagadish Shenava said, "The Hindu community is freqently raising voice whenever needed. We raised voice when a series of attacks took place in Kerala and also during Kerala chief minister's visit to Mangaluru. Our Hindu leaders taught a good lesson to the state government with the Honnavar protest. When there is attack on Hindus we are expected to be silent, but why is there so much of bias in providing justice? When journalist Gauri Lankesh was murdered, Communists gathered to demand justice, holding placards saying 'I am Gauri', but when Paresh is murdered they are not to been seen holding any placards. Paresh's post-mortem report says that it was a normal death but how is it possible that his face turned blackish in just one day? Hence we demand a second post-mortem and also that the case be handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

Vice-president of district VHP Shivananda Mendon said, "A young innocent Paresh Mesta was killed and the post-mortem report says it was normal death. It is definitely a fake report. As we have no faith in the state government, we demand a second post-mortem and NIA probe so that the truth will be revealed and the culprit will be behind the bars."

VHP district vice-president Manohar Suvarna, Vasudev Gowda, Somnath Kotian, secretary Gopal Kuthar and others were present.