The investigation into the Hubballi violence has revealed that it was pre-planned, police sources said on Wednesday. The police have collected videos which reveal the planning for the violence that happened on April 16 in the commercial hub of north Karnataka.

A violent mob outside the police station sought the beheading of a youth, who had put up an allegedly anti-Muslim post in social media. The mob shouted slogans that called for violence, like “What is the punishment for the guilty” and “Beheading is the only punishment for the guilty.”

The mob raised pro-Pakistan and ISI slogans during the protest, according to police sources. The police said that the gathering of more than 2,000 people in a span of 20 minutes, and the loads of stones found at the scene of crime provide enough evidence to prove that the violence was organised.

Meanwhile, a special team has been sent to Hyderabad to nab accused Moulvi Wasim Mobalik aka Pathan and eight others, who climbed on police vehicles and instigated the mob to indulge in violence. The moulvi (Muslim cleric) was seen standing atop the Hubballi police commissioner’s car outside Old Hubballi police station, making a hate speech and instigating the mob. Next to Wasim, a local Congress leader Altaf Hallur could also be seen encouraging him.

Police have collected the video of the said hate speech. After this inflammatory speech, large-scale violence happened in Hubballi. There are reports that a similarly inflammatory, violence-inciting speech was made at a dargah in Hubli earlier in the day, which provoked Muslim youth to gather at the police police station at night.

The police have arrested 10 more accused persons in connection with the violence taking the total number to 103. Among the arrested, 89 persons have been handed over to judicial custody and all of them have been shifted to Kalaburagi prison. A total of 12 cases have been registered by the police regarding the violence.

After the surfacing of the said ‘objectionable’ post, the police had taken the youth into their custody. Within 20 minutes, about 2,000 gathered near the police station demanding the police to hand over the youth to them. After the police foiled their attempts to barge inside the police station, the mob indulged in violence and resorted to stone pelting on Saturday night.

Including a sub-inspector, 12 persons were injured in the incident. Temples, hospitals, police vehicles and buses were also targeted. The arrested persons were found to be residents of the local area. The police suspected that the message was given to them to gather outside the police station. Presently, prohibitory orders are clamped in Hubballi city.

An audio clip of a Muslim cleric is also doing the rounds on social media where he is heard advising Muslims in Hubballi and elsewhere not to share videos of the violence as that could be used to ‘target them’. He assures his followers that whatever happened ‘will be dealt with legally, inshallah’.

Such incidents show the deep intertwining between Muslim clerics, their religious institutions like JIH/JUH, and Muslim politicians of whichever ‘secular’ party – they work as a team for what they define as Muslim interests, and are well-versed on how to incite, how to deliver veiled threats, how to deal with media and law enforcement. When you add Islamist and secular HINO (Hindu in Name Only) journalists, lawyers, activists and other professionals who provide the cover fire to hide their crimes, they become a potent force whose reach extends beyond their numbers, as we saw today when SC succumbed to pressure and ordered the Jahangirpuri anti-demolition drive to be stopped.

Accusing others of ‘blasphemous’ posts is an old trick in the Islamist armory to target and lynch anyone on their radar. When Muslim mobs are whipped into a frenzy by Muslim clerics and political leaders to demand beheadings (the now infamous ‘sar tan se juda’ demand), the system moves quickly and arrests the target of their ire.

But when a stand-up comic openly abuses Hindu deities and mocks anti-Hindu violence, Hindus turn to courts in search of justice. But even that is denied to them, as the highest court of the land makes it a priority to release the accused on bail. This is the sham of a system that secularism has produced after 75 years – an anti-Hindu, colonized system that bows before rabid Islamists and crooked evangelists.

(With IANS inputs)