The murderers escaped on a motorcycle. The National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) strongly condemned the murder. NAPM in a statement said that the murderwas suspected to be yet another attempt of right wing extremists to kill persons with rationalist views.
Earlier, leading rationalist and anti-superstition activist Dr. Narendra Dabholkar was murdered inPune on 20th August 2013, and left leader and outspoken critic of Hindutva, Govind Pansare was murdered in Kolhapur on February 20, 2015.
So far, despite considerable popular uproar regarding the premeditated killings, the police has been unwilling or unable to make arrests in both Dabholkar and Pansare murder cases, which took place in broad daylight, just like the murder of Kalburgi. What is common to all three premeditated murders is that the victims had all been repeatedly threatened by right wing extremists due to their rationalist views and opposition to obscurantist beliefs.
Co-convenor of the Bajrang Dal’s Bantwal (Karnataka) cell, Bhuvith Shetty, showing his extremism towards religious freedom and independent views, is openly celebrating the murder with a tweet, which states: “Then it was U.R. Ananthamurthy and now M.M. Kalburgi. Mock Hinduism and die dogs death. And dear K. S. Bhagwan you are next”.
This is naked terrorism by a religious extremist, which government must urgently deal with in accordance with the law, demanded NAPM.
The National Alliance of People’s Movements, also demanded:
1) CBI must thoroughly investigate the murders of Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and M.M.Kalburgi with a sense of urgency, arrest the suspected murderers and the guiding forces behind them, and ensure that sufficient hard evidence is made available to the public prosecutor to secure conviction.
2) Prime Minister Narendra Modi must unequivocally declare his stand as well as the union government’s stand regarding all the three premeditated murders, and institute procedures to deal with such acts of terrorism.
3) Terrorist outfits regardless of the religion to which they belong or claim to support, must be declared as “terror groups” since, in direct contravention of the country’s democracy and secularism, they openly violate the freedom of speech by threatening and even eliminating persons who express different views.
Web: http://www.merinews.com/article/napm-deplores-kalburgis-murder-calls-it-another-blow-to-rational-thinking-and-indias-secularism/15909228.shtml