Nuh, Haryana: Around 8 pm in Nalhar village in southern Haryana’s Nuh district, Umar Din’s house was silent, the only sound coming from a ceiling fan mounted on a bamboo shaft along the thatched roof.
The gloom in the household was still fresh though a year had passed since Haryana police arrested construction worker Umar Din’s younger brother Waseem Akram, 22.
On 14 October 2023, more than two months after communal riots in the town of Nuh during a religious procession left six dead including two homeguards, an imam (a preacher) at a Gurugram mosque and a Bajrang Dal man in the procession, Akram was arrested. A couple of months later, he was charged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) 1967, India’s anti-terror law.
Akram, an undergraduate student, was accused of involvement in the murder of Bajrang Dal member Abhishek Chauhan. Specifically, he was alleged to have attacked Chauhan with an axe-like weapon on his neck, a charge based on an account given by an eyewitness.
Umar Din’s home in Nalhar fell within the vicinity of two separate areas wracked by unrest during the July 2023 violence. The Nalhar Mahadev temple is about 300 m away. It was one of the points where on 31 July 2023 the Hindu procession, ‘Brij Mandal Jalabhishek Yatra’, stopped. There was stone-throwing and gunfire.
Khedla Mor, another spot that saw communal violence, is 2 km away.
This story was originally published in article-14.com. Read the full story here.