As no arrests were made immediately, angry locals and supporters gathered outside the police station demanding action
NEW DELHI — A Muslim rickshaw puller was mercilessly thrashed by a group of Hindu youths in the Nibedita Club area of Tripura’s capital city of Agartala. The attackers even tried to set the hapless man on fire.
According to the victim, identified as Didar Hossain, the attackers stopped him, asked his name and launched a brutal attack on him after learning that he was a Muslim.
Hossain, who hails from Birchandra Manu in South Tripura and lives as a tenant in Agartala’s Bitarban area, said he was waylaid by the group as he was returning home after work on Thursday evening. “Four to five men abused me, beat me severely, pushed me into a heap of sand and attempted to set me on fire,” he said. He alleged that the attackers also robbed him of ₹1,200, which was his entire day’s earnings.
“I was beaten badly and thrown into the sand. They tried to burn me. I survived only because they ran away after hearing my screams,” Hossain said in his complaint. He is currently undergoing medical treatment for both physical and mental trauma.
An FIR was lodged at the West Agartala police station under serious sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, including attempt to murder and causing grievous injury by fire, media reports reaching here said on Saturday.
As no arrests were made immediately, angry locals and supporters gathered outside the police station demanding action.
Congress MLA and former Tripura minister Sudip Roy Barman visited the police station and accompanied the victim while filing the complaint. He strongly condemned the attack, calling it a “heinous communal assault”.
“The attackers told him that Muslims are not allowed to live in that area,” Roy Barman said. “The way fundamentalists target minorities elsewhere, RSS-backed miscreants are trying to create the same atmosphere here,” media reports quoted him as saying.
He added that Didar Hossain is a poor daily wage worker who struggles to support his family. “After the assault and robbery, he did not even have money left to buy food,” he said.
Residents of Bitarban also held protests, warning that such identity-based violence could spread fear and unrest if not checked. Shah Alam, a leader of the Tipra Motha Party (TMP), also known as the Tipraha Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance, who joined the protest, alleged police inaction and said minorities often do not get timely justice.
“If such attacks continue, it will destroy social harmony,” Roy Barman said. “In a democracy, there is no place for hatred and violence based on religion.”
Tension gripped parts of the city after several people gathered aggressively outside the West Agartala police station, blocking roads and removing police barricades protesting the attack on the rickshaw puller. The protest led to traffic disruption and panic among commuters, with videos showing one masked protester hitting the glass of an auto rickshaw and threatening drivers.
