Poor Muslims latest targets of Hindu right-wing
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI— Rajasthan Police have opened investigation after a video went viral on internet showing a group of men assaulting a Muslim man with one of them asking him to go to Pakistan.
The incident which took place last week in the Subhash Nagar area of Ajmer district in Rajasthan has sparked outrage as it comes amidst spike in instances of Hindu right-wing violence targetting helpless Muslims.
It appears that the victim was seeking alms when the mob accosted and thrashed him. After the demands by activists, the Ajmer Police claimed that it had filed an FIR into the matter and took into custody five men who appeared in the video.
Initially the police invoked only section 151, a mild charge, in the FIR but activists said that it was not enough and slammed the police for going easy on the culprits.
On Tuesday, the Ajmer Police said on Twitter that they have also incorporated 153 A (Promoting enmity between different groups), 295 A (outrage religious feelings), 323 (causing hurt), 341 (wrongful restraint) of Indian penal code sections in the FIR. “Strictest action will be taken against the accused,” the police said.
Reacting to the Ajmer incident, AIMIM Chief and parliament member Asaduddin Owais said “Virat Hindutvawadi” sometimes kills a Muslim fakir to make himself feel “Virat”, and sometimes beats up the bangle seller— referring to the Indore incident where a mob beat up a Muslim bangle seller on Sunday — by gathering a crowd. “If it doesn’t fight the thinking, it will keep spreading like cancer,” he added.
Indore victim arrested
Latest reports said that the Indore incident took a new turn when police arrested the bangle seller, Taslim, under POCSO Act for allegedly touching a 13-year-old girl inappropriately. The case against Tasleem came after state Home Minister Narottam Mishra gave a press conference justifying the attack on Tasleem alleging that he used ‘fake identity’.
Tasleem was beaten up by a mob of Hindutva supporters on Sunday while he was selling bangles on the roadside in the city. They accused him of touching the wrists of Hindu girls inappropriately and giving fake identity. But his brother denied both the allegations. The police claimed that it arrested two accused over assault on Tasleem.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday hundreds of Hindutva men gathered at the Regal square in support of the mob that attacked Tasleem in Indore city. A video shows them raising slogans like ‘Shoot the traitors’.