N D Shiva Kumar | TNN Bhatkal: Mohammed Danish, a commerce graduate from Bhatkal, a town in Uttara Kannada district, was visiting Bangalore in February this year along with three friends, seeking information about an MBA correspondence course. At 8 pm one night, he was part of a group that was stopped by a policeman on Brigade Road. While checking their IDs, the cop saw Bhatkal on Danish’s driver’s licence, immediately called his seniors and took Danish to the police station. “At the station, a policeman asked me if I had a bomb in my phone to carry out a blast. They made me translate the phone messages, which were in Nawayathi (a mix of Urdu, Konkani, Marathi, Persian and Arabic spoken by Bhatkalis), and even verified my credentials with the Bhatkal police,” says Danish, 24, who alleges he was assaulted and abused. At 1 am, the cops let him go, and Danish hasn’t been back to Bangalore since. “Now if I am out of Bhatkal, I tell people I am from Shirur or Murdeshwara (neighbouring towns),” he says. Danish’s story resonates with others from Bhatkal, a town whose association with violence and terror dates back to 1993, when communal violence claimed 20 lives, both Hindu and Muslim. More recently, the arrest of Indian Mujahideen India operations’ chief Ahmed Siddibappa has revived its terrorist association, even though it’s not his name. Police are referring to Siddibappa as Yasin Bhatkal as it’s his hometown. Bhatkalis claim their hardship begins when they step out of the town that has an 80 per cent Muslim population — renting a hotel room, applying for a job or even buying an air ticket is daunting. So now they hide that they’re from here. Syed F, an MBA graduate, landed a job in a Bangalore software firm by fudging his town’s name on his bio-data. “I had a tough time getting a job, and wasrejected by a popular company because I was from Bhatkal. So I told my present firm that I was from Mangalore, and got the job easily,” Syed says. Physician and poet Dr Mohammed Haneef Shabab, 58, cannot introduce himself as a Bhatkali. “Whenever I go to Mangalore, I ask my relatives to book a hotel room for me in their name,” he claims. Dr Jukakutayeb, based in Michigan, says that even in the US Bhatkal carries negative associations. “Whoever is born here will continue to associate with the place, bring money and put it here. But why would our kids want to associate with a place painted with negativity?” he asks.
Posted on: Thu, 12 Sep 2013 15:06:48 +0000
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