At 9.15 am on June 6, Azhar Pathan was at his vada pav restaurant in Dilli Naka neighbourhood in the city of Sangamner in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district. A handful of customers were having breakfast when a mob of around 100-150 people gathered outside the premises. According to Pathan, they began shouting slogans like “Jai Shri Ram” and “ya laandya naa maara”, beat those laandyas – a derogatory term for Muslims in Maharashtra.
Pathan, 34, was frightened. He said some people in the crowd then told him to close his establishment.
“I immediately responded in the affirmative,” he said. “I told my customers I was closing. But the mob began ransacking my shop. They overturned the counter, broke chairs, and destroyed food items. They toppled a cauldron of boiling oil on my employee’s leg. Fortunately, they didn’t beat us. They left after ransacking the shop.”
This violence was the by-product of a march in Sangamner organised by the Sakal Hindu Samaj, purportedly against a minor traffic issue that took place on May 28. Yet this march, called the Bhagwa Morcha, was accompanied by protesters allegedly pelting stones, entering people’s homes, and ransacking shops like Azhar’s.
The Samaj has a larger purpose – it’s been organising protest marches for various Hindutva causes across Maharashtra over the past year. But about the violence on June 6, one of its organisers insisted to Newslaundry that the Muslims “started it”.
Traffic issue, Suresh Chavhanke and violence
The traffic issue on May 28 took place at Jorve Naka. According to Abdul Aziz, a social worker in the city, members of the Muslim community ran stalls and eateries that had encroached upon a road there, leading to traffic congestion. No action was taken even after complaints were filed with authorities.
“On May 28, a tempo tried to pass through the area. It was repeatedly honking,” said Aziz. “A stall owner asked him not to honk. They argued and then the driver left. He returned after 15 minutes with six or seven people and the argument got heated. The stall owners then beat them up.”
Aziz alleged that the tempo driver filed a police complaint and then “gathered a crowd of 100-150 people”.
“They started hurling abuses against the Muslims, who then attacked them,” Aziz said. “The police intervened but stones were pelted at them too. The situation was then brought under control and an FIR was filed.”
That’s when the Samaj called for the march to protest what had happened. Its members mobilised crowds in nearby villages for over a week, urging them to participate. Village panchayats and community leaders even passed resolutions to support the morcha. Some of them can be seen below; Newslaundry has copies of 29 of these resolutions.
And so the Bhagwa Morcha began promptly at 9 am on June 6. Locals told Newslaundry that’s when the wave of violence began. Some participants raised slogans to “raise sticks and chase away laandye”.
One said, “Destroy all mosques! Only then the strength of Hindus will be demonstrated.”
Others in the crowd said, “Everything has shut down, this is the terror of Hindus . After some days, we will drag them out of their houses and beat them.”
But where was the police?
Pathan alleged his shop was ransacked “right in front of a policeman”.
“He tried to control them but they didn’t listen to him,” he said. “I incurred damages worth Rs 40,000. I went to the police station around 5 pm but had to wait until 10 pm to file the FIR. I am a businessman. I have nothing to do with politics. My employee who got injured is himself a Hindu.”
Importantly, the June 6 rally had a high-profile attendee – Sudarshan News editor-in-chief and hate speech connoisseur Suresh Chavhanke. At one point, he addressed the Morcha attendees, cautioning against “love jihad” and warning that Sangamner “could soon turn into Pakistan”. He also said Muslims girls “must marry Hindu men” to save themselves…
This story was originally published in newslaundry.com. Read the full story here