Attacks on Muslims continued well into the month of March in India, as violence against minorities went on unabated. March was stained with more lynchings and the rise of cow vigilantes like Monu Manesar, Puneeth Karehalli and Radha Semwal Dhoni to name a few.
As Ramzan began in March, it also welcomed Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanthi, both Hindu festivals sprinkled with hate speech and objection over namaz offerings in different places. The violence, which took place last year as well, created an atmosphere of anarchy and unrest amongst the minority community in states such as Bihar and West Bengal.
This article is a part of Siasat.com’s hate-crime tracker which chronicles atrocities against Muslims and communal clashes in India. The tracker chronicles everything from verbal discrimination, assault and lynching/murder each month of the year, and a report will be published.
March 2: A Mazar (Muslim shrine) was demolished by right-wing worker Radha Semwal Dhoni and her colleagues claiming it was built on state land. The incident happened in Uttarakhand. A video has emerged where two men are seen breaking the shrine with hammers.
March 9: A 47-year-old Muslim man was lynched by a Hindu mob who accused him and his nephew of carrying beef. The incident happened in Rasulpur of Chhapra district, Bihar on March 7.
In a press release, police said that three people have been arrested and the hunt is on for the remaining accused. According to Maktoob Media, the deceased Naseeb Qureshi and his nephew Firoz Qureshi were returning home when they were attacked by a mob of 10-15 people.
While Qureshi was brutally beaten with sticks and sharp weapons, his nephew managed to escape. However, when he approached the police to rescue his uncle, he received callous behaviour.
March 14: Fifteen people were detained by the police on Tuesday after alleged stone pelting was reported on a mosque, an Urdu medium school and a few Muslim houses during a Hindu bike rally to unveil the statue of Sangolli Rayanna in Haveri district, Karnataka. Reports suggest that a similar rally was carried out and a few members of the Muslim community were alleged to have pelted stones.
The mob allegedly also threatened the children going to the school and pelted stones at the nearby mosque, and the nearby Urdu school was also pelted with stones.
March 15: A case was registered in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar against suspended BJP MLA from Telangana T Raja Singh after a video of his vitriolic speech targeting Muslims went viral on social media.
“Whoever speaks against Hindus, we will not spare them,” Singh said to a rousing saffron crowd comprising mostly youth in Rahta tehsil. “In our Hindu Rashtra you won’t even get a loudspeaker to do what you do five times a day,” he said in an apparent reference to Muslims offering prayers.
March 17: Two meat vendors were allegedly beaten up and robbed by seven men, including three Delhi Police personnel, in east Delhi’s Shahdara, a senior officer said. The incident took place in the Anand Vihar area when the two meat vendors were travelling in their car and hit a scooter. The accused, alleged to be ‘gau rakshaks’, urinated on the victims’ faces and threatened to kill them, the police said.
March 19: Members of a right-wing group, Hindu Jan Garjana Morcha, attacked a women’s public washroom, among other acts of violence in an attempt to remove the name ‘Aurangabad’ from its board.
According to reports, the incident took place during a march organised by the Sakal Hindu Ekatrikaran Samiti. The rally witnessed speeches by the editor-in-chief of Sudarshan News Suresh Chavhanke who used derogatory terms to address Muslims whilst slamming Aurangzeb.
“There is no body of Arungzeb in his grave, Marahatas have done with him what America did with Osama bin Laden,” claimed Chavhanke challenging history writers to dig up his grave.
March 25: Workers of the right-wing organisation Bajrang Dal allegedly assaulted a Muslim man who was with his Hindu female friend at a park in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh. They accused him of promoting ‘Love Jihad’.
A video went viral on social media platforms wherein the Hindutva members can be seen questioning the young man while the girl pleads with them to let go.
March 27: After reports of a young Muslim man being arrested by the Vadgaon police in Maharashtra emerged, Hindutva groups took out a rally in Sawarde village demanding the accused’s family be exiled.
According to a local Marathi news Lokmat, the accused – Mohammed Momim – had put up a Whatsapp status on Mughal ruler Aurangzeb in reference to the recent name change of the city of Aurangabad.
Mohammed Momim was finally arrested by the police under Section 295 (Injuring or defiling place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class) of the Indian Penal Code.
However, matters did not end here. Hindutva organisations took out a bike rally demanding the Sarpanch of the village declare Momim’s family as outcasts. They wanted the family to leave the village for good.
March 27: A group of right-wing organisation men objected to the offering of Taraweeh prayers by some Muslims in Lajpat Nagar of Moradabad district, Uttar Pradesh.
Rashtriya Bajrang Dal men, led by its state president Rohan Saxena, barged into the house of one Zakir Hussain who was praying along with his family. Saxena alleged this was creating an atmosphere of panic nearby. A notice was issued to one Zakir Hussain and nine others.
March 27: Leaders from the ruling BJP delivered an Islamophobic speech in full swing at the Digital Hindu Conclave held on March 18.
BJP leader Kapil Mishra, Kajal Shingala aka Kajal Hindusthani and far-right author Kshitij Patukale compared minorities, particularly those belonging to the Muslim community, to snakes. She called for violence, as the only way to attain Akhand Bharat besides raising the topic of ‘Love Jihad.’
Kajal Shingala said that there can never be brotherhood between Hindus and Muslims and called out those who support secularism and peace between the two communities as a “sinking ship”.
BJP leader Kapil Mishra spoke about ‘Love Jihad’. Taking the recent murder of Shraddha Walker, whose live-in partner Aftab Poonawala stored her chopped body in a refrigerator, he said, “There will come a day when we will see ads like keep fruits in the fridge, not ‘Shraddha’.”
March 28: Amid the ongoing Hindu festival of Chaitra Navratri, cow vigilantes and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders forcibly shut down meat shops in several localities.
Videos of BJP leader Ravindra Singh on rounds in the Muslim locality Mandawali Fazalpur in Vinod Nagar of West Delhi surfaced on social media. He demanded local meat traders shut down all nine days of the Hindu festival Navratri which commenced on March 22 (Pratipada Tithi) and ended on March 30 (Navami Tithi).
March 30: A mob of more than 500 persons allegedly attacked policemen in Maharashtra’s Aurangabad wherein a few young men belonging to the Hindu and Muslim communities clashed, police said.
The incident took place in Kiradpura which has a renowned Ram Temple. People belonging to both communities shouted slogans followed by stone pelting at each other.
March 30: Stones were hurled at a Ram Navami procession in the Fatehpura area of Gujarat’s Vadodara city. While some vehicles got damaged, no one was reported injured. The procession passed along its planned route under police protection.
March 30: The Karnataka police lathi-charged Bajrang Dal and Hindu activists when their protest against the recital of the Quran at a historical Hindu religious fair turned violent in Beluru town.
The Hindu organisations had given a bandh call in Beluru town. The situation turned volatile when a Muslim young man raised the slogan “Quran Zindabad” amid the protest.
March 31: After Jalgaon and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Hindu and Muslim groups clashed in the minority-dominated Malvani area of the Malad west suburb during a Ram Navami procession after locals objected to loud DJ music played during the Hindu religious procession. Enraged, some of the participants allegedly indulged in pelting stones, sparking panic.
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