Communal tension escalated in Purola town of Uttarkashi district in Uttarakhand as a mob of Hindutva goons attacked a Muslim shopkeeper.
A video has gone viral showing a group of right-wing men shouting Jai Shri Ram attacking a locked door of an alleged Muslim shopkeeper with sticks.
The door remained closed throughout the mayhem until police officials came and forced the attackers to leave.
Purola has been caught under the communal web since May 26 when an alleged attempt to kidnap a minor Hindu girl by two men, one of them being a Muslim, was foiled by locals.
The incident was coined as ‘love jihad’, a conspiracy theory by Hindu extremists which alleges that Muslim men woo Hindu women, trap and convert them.
Soon after, police arrested Ubed Khan, 24, a local shopkeeper, and Jitender Saini, 23, a motorcycle mechanic on May 27.
However, the situation began to spiral down as threatening posters appeared in shops owned by the Muslim community asking them to vacate the town by June 15.
Following huge protests by the Hindu community, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami held a meeting with senior police officers on June 9 in order to curb incidents of ‘love jihad’.
Later, while speaking to reporters he said that the number of people coming out in the open against “love jihad” reflects a growing awareness about crimes of this nature.
“Instructions have been given to the police to deal sternly with the guilty in love jihad cases. They have also been asked to conduct verification drives from time to time to look into the antecedents of people coming from outside and settling here,” he said.
There have been protests in Barkot, Chinyalisaur, and Bhatwari as well.
Many Muslim traders have reportedly left the Uttarkashi district out of fear.
