The assault against Muslims continued in the month of February and showed no sign of dissipating. The atrocities took place even as key states like Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, and Manipur witnessed campaigning and polling for the legislative assembly elections.
Siasat.com has compiled a list of atrocities against Muslims which took place in the month of February. This list is in no way exhaustive and only covers the atrocities which received media attention.
February 2: A Sadhvi made a hate speech against Muslims at the Chhattisgarh Dharam Sansad. She issued an open call encouraging men to abduct Mμslim women and incite sexual vio|ence against them. As of now, the police have taken action against only Kalicharan who abused Mahatma Gandhi.
February 4: Various districts of Madhya Pradesh witnessed men taking an issue with loudspeakers which issue the azaan call for prayer. The man in the video below can be seen pointing at a building in which a loudspeaker was installed in order to counter the azan, right opposite the Raoti mosque.
In the now-viral video, the agitated youth yelled that their memorandum to the police regarding the disturbance caused by azaan had gone unheard, forcing them to install loudspeakers in front of the mosque to disrupt it.
February 9: The issue over the wearing of hijab (headscarves) by students spread beyond Karnataka’s borders and erupted in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh and Puducherry. As the Karnataka High Court found in favour of “discipline” and a “uniform clothing code” in response to a plea by five female students in support of headscarves, a minister in Madhya Pradesh ruled in favour of “discipline” and a “uniform dress code.” The authorities in Puducherry have requested the principal of a government school in Ariyankuppam to investigate reports that a teacher objected to headscarves in class.
February 10: In Jaunpur district, a Tildhari Singh Degree College student claimed that the college’s Assistant Professor of Political Science (Assistant Professor) chastised her for wearing the hijab. The assistant professor allegedly kicked the student out of class. Zareen BM, the girl who made the complaint, is a final-year student.
Zareen claims she went to class at 2 p.m. on Wednesday while wearing a hijab. She was about to sit on the seat when Professor Prashant Trivedi, who was teaching the class, intervened. He is said to have reminded her that even though he had repeatedly refused, she was still wearing the hijab.
February 11: On Friday, a private college in Chaksu, Rajasthan’s Jaipur district, allegedly barred three females from attending after they arrived wearing a burqa.
February 15: An autonomous post-graduate government college in Madhya Pradesh’s Datia district issued an order prohibiting the wearing of hijabs on college grounds after a group of Hindu right-wing outfits protested on February 14, Monday.
February 15: The Jamia Masjid in Hampapur hamlet in Krishnarajanagara, a town in Karnataka’s Mysore region, was assaulted by at least 4-5 unidentified individuals on February 9th, about 12:30 AM.
February 16: Video of police lathi-charging at Muslim women protesting in support of Hijab in Ghaziabad district of UP goes viral. While the police say that the women had committed indecency, scuffles, abusing.
February 18: Mayankeshwar Singh, BJP MLA in Amethi remarked that if a Muslim wanted to stay in India then he will have to say Radhe-Radhe or else go to Pakistan.
On the same day, an English lecturer working as a guest faculty has resigned from her post as she was asked to shun the hijab while teaching in Tumakuru district of Karnataka on Friday. “It is a matter of my self-respect. I can’t teach without the hijab,” the lecturer Chandini said after quitting.
February 19: BJP MP Dharmapuri Arvind, in a blatantly Islamophobic speech, said that Muslims of the country rely on Sharia to get married four times but also rely on the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for offences like stealing. He then advocated that as per the Sharia, the hands of robbers should be cut off.
Slogans of ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ and ‘Vande Mataram’ were raised as saffron-clad goons set hijab on fire in Aligarh.
Tension prevailed at Saifabad police station in Hyderabad after scores of people staged a protest against the alleged high-handedness of a sub-inspector for lathi charging at a burqa-clad woman in an attempt to dissolve a heated argument following an accident.
February 21: A burqa-clad girl in Bihar’s Begusarai district was stopped from making transactions in a nationalised bank. Three to four bank employees asked her to remove the hijab and only then apply for the withdrawal of the money. The girl strongly objected to it and called her parents. In defense of their daughter, they asked the employees to show a written notification that Hijab is not allowed inside the bank.
Following the murder of Harsha, a 23-year-old Bajrang Dal member, riots have broken out in various pockets of Shimoga district in Karnataka. The specific target of the riots seems to be localities where chiefly Muslims reside.
February 24: In Samastipur, Bihar, JDU worker Khaleel Alam Rizvi (34) was murdered by Vipul Kumar and his associates.
The police state that the reason for the murder seems to be a money transaction gone wrong. However, in a video that went viral, the accused can be seen beating Rizvi while invoking the name of the cow. The investigation in the case is ongoing.
February 25: Mohammad Ataullah hailing from Godhra, Gujarat alleges that while returning home on 25th, he was attacked by some goons, who threw stones at his car, and hit him with a punch, pulled his beard, asked to chant Jai Shri Ram slogans, after beating him badly.
Ataullah was later admitted to the hospital.
February 25: Hari Bhushan Thakur, BJP MLA (Bihar) argued that “Voting rights of Muslims should be snatched, they should be declared as a double class citizens.”
February 26: In Aurangabad, Maharashtra, a Muslim vegetable vendor was stopped by a man from selling vegetables in the village, and asked not to return to the village. Reflecting their Muslim identity, it was said that now we have become fanatics. The police arrested the man who threatened the vegetable vendor.
Siasat.com is doing a monthly compilation of Muslim atrocities taking place in India. The January compilation can be accessed here.
(Compiled by Marziya Sharif)
