In another incident of Islamophobia, the video of a teacher allegedly encouraging Hindu students to slap a Muslim classmate went viral on social media on Friday, August 25, prompting the Uttar Pradesh police to respond and investigate the incident.
“I have declared jitne bhi Mohammedan bachhe hai…” the teacher can be heard saying, while encouraging the students to slap the victim.
When a distressed Muslim student starts crying after getting slapped by his classmates, one after the other, the teacher continues, “Aey kya tum maar rahe ho iske… jor se maaro naa… chalo aur kiska number hai…, (What are you doing… hit harder… who is next?).”
According to the UP police, the incident took place at Neha Public school in Khubbapur village, under the Mansoorpur police station limits in Muzaffarnagar.
The incident led to massive outrage on social media.
According to Alt News journalist Mohammed Zubair, the victim’s father decided to discontinue his child from the school after the incident by taking a refund of the fees.
“The teacher apologised in front of the police. The father also gave it in writing to the police that he doesn’t want to lodge a police complaint against the teacher,” Zubair said in a post.
Speaking to Zubair, the student’s father said that he didn’t want to file a police complaint due to the fear of getting called by the police or by the courts due to the case.
“I didn’t want to file a police complaint because I don’t want to be called by police or by court every now and then, I don’t want to get into all these…” the father said.
The Muzaffarnagar police in a post on X (formerly Twitter) said that an investigation is being conducted into the incident and appropriate action will be taken.
Reacting to the incident, AIMIM chief and MP Asaduddin Owaisi slammed the BJP-led UP government, the National Commission for Protection of Children’s Rights (NCPCR) and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) for ‘inaction’ over the incident.
“What has happened to this child is responsible for @myogiadityanath and their hateful thinking. Perhaps you will invite this criminal to Lucknow and reward her. It is the job of the police to take strict action under Section 75 of the Juvenile Justice 2015 Act,” he said in a post on X, targetting UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath.
He also said that it is common for Muslim children to be targetted in school by being called ‘Jihadi’ and ‘Pakistani’.
“Don’t know how many Muslim children are forced to bear humiliation silently throughout their life. It is common that Muslim children are targetted in school by being called ‘Jihadi’ and ‘Pakistani’. The government should provide compensation to the child’s family and ensure that he studies in a safe environment,” he added.
Further targetting the BJP, he questioned the party’s ‘bulldozer justice’ policy and said that even a ‘strongest condemnation’ tweet hasn’t come on this incident yet.
“BJP’s Madhya Pradesh government had bulldozed a school on a small matter. Here a child is being thrashed on the basis of his religion, and a “strongest condemnation” tweet doesn’t even come,” he remarked.
