The Newz Radar
CHAMBA: Even as an uneasy calm prevails in Himachal Pradesh’s Chamba after the infamous Manohar murder case, undated photos of main accused Sharif Mohammad standing alongside BJP leaders during an old political event has been going viral on social media.
In the picture, Sharif Mohammad is seen with sitting BJP MLA from Dalhousie DS Thakur while in another photo, he is seen sitting on a chair in the front row of a public meeting. The viral photos are believed to have been clicked before the 2022 Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections.
Due to the photos, politics has started heating up in Chamba. The BJP workers had organised fierce demonstrations on the streets of Chamba after the murder, but the photos of the accused along with the BJP leaders have raised a question mark on the party’s stand.
After the disappearance of 24-year-old Manohar of Bhandal panchayat on June 6, his body was found in a sack in a drain on June 9, which had been cut into eight pieces. Manohar’s love affair with a Muslim girl was said to be the reason behind the heinous murder.
The police have detained 10 persons from the Muslim community, among them the girl’s uncle, aunt and a cousin. Section 144 has been enforced in hamba district, restricting the gathering of more than four persons.
Former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur along with a contingent of state BJP leaders was stopped on the border of Salooni as he was proceeding to meet the victim’s family members three days ago.
Jai Ram along with BJP state president Dr Rajeev Bindal, former Minister Rakesh Pathania, Churah MLA Hansraj, Dalhousie MLA DS Thakur, former chief whip Bikram Jaryal, BJP leader Rajeev Bhardwaj, former MLA Vishal Nehria and others was stopped at the entry point of Salooni town by the police.
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu had accused the BJP of trying to flare up violence in Chamba by giving communal colour to the murder of the youth. Addressing the media in Shimla on Saturday (June 17, 2023), CM Sukhu had said that within 24 hours of Manohar’s murder, his killers had been arrested. “Five days after the murder, the BJP Yuva Morcha thought of capitalising on the incident and took to arson on the streets of Salooni in Chamba. The house of the murder accused was set ablaze and the local people were incited. The BJP tried its best to give it a political colour,” said the CM, seeking to know from the BJP why its cadre were protesting across the state.
