A Muslim owned chicken shop is alleged to have been vandalised by a Hindu right-wing group on the outskirts of Belagavi in Karnataka, a city which is at the receiving end of yet another anti-Muslim hate crime.
The right-wing group allegedly vandalised the chicken shop belonging to Hasan Sab and his wife Afsana Hasan Sab Khureshi in Yamanapur, 6 km from the city, and asked the couple to move away from the town in a threatening manner.
This comes days after a Hindu man and Muslim woman were harassed for spending time with each other and a few weeks post the brutal murder of Arbaaz Mullah in the same city.
According to the sources, the right-wing group had demanded the shutting down of chicken shops in the area owing to the establishment of a temple in the vicinity, reported The Indian Express. The villagers started to shut down chicken shops despite no such statement being issued by any competent authority.
“We were allowed to open till 11 am and we did close the shop by then. By afternoon, we sent two of our workers to clean the shop and that is when some of them attacked the workers, assaulted them and vandalised the shop. When my husband and I went there after getting to know about this, they threatened us that they would not allow us to live in the town and tried to extort money from us,” Afsana told The Indian Express.
The situation is made worse by the fact that the family running the chicken shop had donated Rs 2500 for the temple’s construction.
“My husband was totally shocked. I approached the local police who held a ‘compromise’ meeting even though I had asked them to take action against the goons. The police told us that they had ‘settled the matter and would not intervene in our business and told us that there was no need to file a complaint,” she said.
“It was only on Monday morning they (the police) woke up when the video went viral. Shockingly, they are probing about who leaked the video but not the people who vandalised the shop,” she added.
Belagavi city police commissioner K Thiyagarajan stated that he was unaware of the incident and if the victims were unable to get justice at the police station, they should have approached higher officials.
Though the most recent incident took place on October 8, it came to light only when the video went viral on Monday as the local police allegedly did not register an FIR when the family had approached them.