Mangaluru: Abdul Basheer (47), who was seriously injured after he was brutally assaulted him in retaliation for the murder of Sangh parivar activist Deepak Rao, succumbed to injuries on Sunday.
Basheer, who worked in a fast food joint at Kottar Chowki in Mangaluru, was assaulted by a group of men on January 3 night, following the death of Deepak Rao of Katipalla on the same day. He was rushed to hospital by one Chandrashekhar. Though the assailants did not have any personal enmity with Basheer, they wanted to attack a Muslim as a retaliation for the murder of Deepak Rao, said sources.
Basheer breathed his last on Sunday around 8.05 am. The family members and leaders of the Muslim community requested people to maintain peace and ensure that there was no untoward incident. In the evening, the body was taken home from where it was later taken to the Kuloor mosque for the last rites. The district administration has declared a compensation of Rs 10 lakh for the family members.
"Basheer spent most of his life in the Gulf working there in the hotel industry for about 22 years. It was only about a year ago that he settled down in Mangaluru. His children asked him to return as they wanted their father to be at home. His two sons are working in the Gulf now," former mayor and Jilla Muslim Saghatanegala Okkuta president K Ashraf told Deccan Chronicle. His younger children including daughter Imraz and son Rizwar are studying in Mangaluru.
Basheer hailed from Akash Bhavan near Kavoor in Mangaluru. He had left for Saudi in his early 20s and stayed in a room with four others. One of them was a Hindu- Prabhakar- who recounted his memories of Bashir. "In the 1990s, there was communal riots in our district. Some Muslims of our region tried to trouble me. But Basheer told them I was his friend and warned them not to trouble me. I can never forget that incident," Prabhakar recollects. “Whenever Prabhakar's family wanted help for treatment, Bashir would send his brothers who were here. For Bashir, Prabhakar's family was like his own," Bashir's classmate and corporator Deepak Poojary told Deccan Chronicle.
