Bengaluru, June 30 -- Five days after terrorists killed 26 tourists in Pahalgam, a 39-year-old Muslim ragpicker from Kerala was beaten to death near a cricket ground near Mangaluru. According to an independent fact-finding report, the lynching was not a spontaneous act of violence but a direct consequence of the "hate-filled atmosphere that followed the April 22 attack".

On April 27, Mohammed Ashraf, who collected discarded plastic to sell, was lynched in Kudupu, a village on the outskirts of Mangaluru, after allegedly picking up an empty water bottle near a local cricket match. The report - published by the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR), and All India Lawyers Association for...