As the heat-wave heightened in the month of May, there was little to no respite for members of the Muslim community. While April placed Muslims in a precarious state, May worsened it as the controversy surrounding Gyanvapi mosque, atrocities against children of the Muslim community among other issues, saw a notable increase.
This article is a part of Siasat.com’s hate-crime tracker which chronicles atrocities against Muslims in India.
May 1: Senior politician PC George at an event in Karnataka organised by the Hindu Dharma Parishad, said, “Muslim traders were deliberately mixing infertility drugs in others’ drinks so that the Muslim community can increase its population and turn India into a Muslim country.”
May 6: A day after Eid-ul-Fitr, authorities of Kanpur demolished an Islamic School including a mosque, and desecrated copies of Quran. The demolition was carried out without serving any prior notice to the madrasah administration.
May 7: Around 600 Muslims from Gosabar in Gujarat filed an application in the Ahmedabad High court seeking permission to euthanize themselves. According to the plea filed in the court, the authorities of the concerned department do not allow them to anchor boats at Gosabar or Navi Bandar port and have been harassing them since 2016. Hence, they wanted to end their lives.
May 8: A personal issue turned communal in Shivammoga. A mob led by Sangh Parivar damaged more than five Muslim houses, vehicles. Further, a Muslim couple were attacked in Indiranagar.
May 9: In the midst of rising anti-Muslim sentiment in India, Bihar Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Haribhushan Thakur Bachaul called for Muslims to be burned.
Speaking to the media, Thakur launched a scathing attack against the community saying, “Muslims should be set ablaze just as Hindus burn Ravana effigies during the festival of Dussehra”.
May 13: The Ghaziabad police killed three Muslim cattle herders for allegedly smuggling cows. The three accused were reportedly gunned down after being chased by the police.
May 17: In an attempt to assert dominance, a group of Hindutva organizations took out a rally in a Muslim-majority locality in Kasba Ichauli, in Uttar Pradesh (UP).
According to a tweet, a group of 20 to 25 people passed through a Muslim locality while blaring provocative songs, and waving saffron flags in the evening at 6 pm.
According to the police, they asked the accused to surrender, but instead, the trio allegedly open fire on the police, injuring a constable. The incident is said to have occurred at 4:30 AM, when the police were checking vehicles at the Jal Nigam police outpost area of Vijayanagar police station.
May 18: In Malda, West Bengal, the Imam of Kotwali Masjid was attacked and brutally injured. The local police have arrested the attacker.
May 19: A Muslim youth, who went to bathe in the Narmada river, was accused of spitting in the river and verbally harassed.
May 20: A video of beating an elderly Bhanwarlal Jain on suspicion of being a Muslim went viral post his demise. The case is of Neemuch in Madhya Pradesh where Dinesh Kushwaha, husband of former BJP councilor while beating him asked if his name was Mohammad.
May 23: Shafikul Islam, a Muslim fish seller in Assam, died in police custody. A group protesting Islam’s demise, set a police station on fire. The administration used bulldozers to demolish the houses of many including that of the victim’s. A case has been registered against five including the wife of the victim under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
May 24: The mosque present in the Qutub Minar complex comes under the Waqf Board, in which prayers have been offered for more than 46 years. However, the Archeaological Survey of India (ASI) banned the prayers there in the last week of May.
May 26: Non-Muslim students sat on a dharna at Mangalore University in Karnataka, to protest against the wearing of hijab by female Muslim students.
May 27: The now ex-spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Nupur Sharma abused Prophet Muhammad in derogatory terms.
May 30: 13 hijab-wearing students approached the office of the district collector of Mangalore to negotiate with him regarding permission to attend classes.
Earlier in the day, the students had gone to request the university authorities to grant them permission to sit in the classes. However, the students were unable to convince the management.
May 31: A recent video has surfaced on Twitter where men dressed in burqas and under the influence of alcohol are seen dancing in a rather crude fashion. A Bajrang Dal leader Harish Poyyaiah (in a red shirt) is also seen dancing along with them.
May 31: Two Muslim minors claim that they were subjected to custodial violence while they were held at a juvenile correctional home in the aftermath of Khargone violence in Madhya Pradesh (MP).
May 31: A college professor in Aligarh was sent on compulsory leave after a video showing him offering ‘namaz’ in the college lawns went viral. Hindu right-wing youth leaders demanded action against him. The incident was reported in Sri Varshney College following which Professor SR Khalid was sent on one month’s compulsory leave.
(Note: This is in no way an exhaustive list. The hate crime tracker for the months of January, February, March and April can be accessed below.)
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