July bore witness to yet another series of hate crimes against Muslims in India. Aside from the resurgence of the debate on the hijab ban, communally charged murders also took place.
This article is a part of Siasat.com’s Hate-crime Tracker which chronicles atrocities against Muslims in India.
July 2:
Gujarat: An alleged gram panchayat notification bearing the Sarpanch’s name directing shopkeepers and residents not to buy anything from Muslim vendors was doing the rounds in a village in the Banaskantha district.
July 4:
A panchayat allegedly representing “all Hindu communities” in Haryana’s Manesar, barely 50 km away from Delhi, has called for the ‘economic boycott‘ of Muslims in the area. The speakers called on people to “not buy anything” from Muslim-owned shops and businesses.
Under the banner of ‘Samast Hindu Samaj’, the event held on July 3, witnessed at least 200 people in attendance.
July 6:
Members of the Bajrang Dal and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) barged into an auditorium in Soraba taluk’s Anavatti village in Karnataka’s Shivamogga district and stopped artists performing a play midway, alleging that they were promoting Islamic traditions inside a hall belonging to the Veerashaiva community.
The incident occurred on July 3, with several right-wing vigilantes threatening the troupe’s head, raising slogans against the play, and also forcing actors to leave the venue without completing the act.
July 7:
The Kolar Police filed a First Information Report (FIR) against Hindu Jagaran Vedike activist Keshav Murthy, on July 6 over his remarks on the Quran. The Karnataka convenor of Hindu Jagaran Vedike, Murthy was booked on July 1 after Zameer Ahamad, president of Anjuman-e-Islamia filed a complaint.
July 11:
In a viral video, a group of men forced a Muslim man to shout “Jai Shri Ram” and “Bharat Mata ki Jai”. The police arrested one person in connection with the case.
According to the police, the incident happened while the Muslim man, identified as Mubin Ahmed, was foraging the area near the Dharmpura canal to feed his cows.
Mubin crossed paths with a few Hindu men who forced him to shout the above-mentioned slogans and further called Mubin a ‘deshdrohi’ (traitor) and blamed him for the murder of Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur. The men made a video of the entire incident and posted it on social media.
July 19: Some Muslim girls claimed they were made to remove their burkha and hijab when they reached an examination centre to appear for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (UG) in Maharashtra’s Washim district.
July 22: 17-year-old Mohammad Ashfaq was accused of posting inflammatory comments against Kodagu goddesses and women of the community. Ashfaq received death threats on social media and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad asked Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai to ensure his arrest.
Only much later, the cyber police of Madikeri had a major breakthrough wherein they arrested 29-year-old Divin Devaiah, a private employee working in Bengaluru found to be responsible for the posts.
July 22:
Tension prevailed in the Charminar area of Hyderabad after miscreants attacked a Muslim man for not chanting “Jai Sri Ram” during a Bonalu procession in the Old City.
The police had identified the accused and took them into custody. According to the details, Mohammed Shahid aka Afridi a resident of Hussainialam was on his way back home, while a Bonalu procession was moving from Shad cafe Hussainialam.
Suddenly, a group of men allegedly stopped Shahid and applied tilak on his forehead; compelling him to chant Jai Sri Ram slogans. When Shahid refused to do so, he was badly beaten up.
July 24:
A 28-year-old Muslim man was beaten to death by four Hindu men, including a district-level Bharatiya Janata Party leader on July 19 in Lakhimpur Kheri, Uttar Pradesh.
According to UP Tak, the deceased – Aqueel Ahmed – had gone to attend a local fair with his friends when he got into an argument with BJP leader Charu Shukla over a swing. The argument took a violent turn when friends of Charu Shukla reached the spot and started beating Aqueel. He was rushed to the hospital but was declared dead by the doctors.
July 24:
A Hindu woman who had earlier accused a Muslim businessman, Prince Qureshi of raping her retracted her earlier statement and said that she was hired by two persons to frame the man.
Earlier, the woman, aged 24 years, had said that Qureshi, aged 27 years, had vowed to marry her and under the same pretext, raped her in Kasganj, Uttar Pradesh. She also alleged that the man had introduced himself as ‘Monu Gupta’.
Based on her complaint, the man was booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) on July 16. After the complaint, Aman Chauhan (34) and Akash Solanki (28) along with more than 200 workers protested at Ganjdundwara police station.
July 29:
A Muslim man named Fazil was allegedly killed by a Hindutva activist in Dakshina Karnataka. A group of men allegedly hacked Fazil to death in Karnataka’s Mangaluru district, hours after the state Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai’s visited the family of slain BJP activist Praveen Kumar Nettaru, police said.
July 30:
Hindutva leader Rishikumar Swami of the Kali Mutt in Chikkamagalur, made a speech calling for violence against Muslims and further justified the murder of Fazil, a Muslim man killed in Mangalore.
“If that was (murder of Fazil in Mangalore) done by our people, then I’m happy. Nine heads will be pending. There must be 10 heads against 1 head,” reiterated the seer who had called for the beheading of ten Muslims, to avenge the death of one Hindu.
30 July:
Ideological fault-lines within the NDA in Bihar have once again come to the fore with a section of BJP leaders raising objections to Urdu medium schools in Muslim-dominated districts remaining shut on Fridays and holding classes on Sunday.
(Note: This is in no way an exhaustive list. The hate crime tracker for the months of January, February, March, April, May and June can be accessed below.)
January:
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