By UNNATI SHARMA / The Print
New Delhi: A group of Muslim men deliberately breached a river embankment in Assam’s Silchar, leading to devastating floods that ravaged the entire city, alleged an article in the latest issue of Panchjanya, the Hindi journal affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS).
Headlined “badh jihad” (flood jihad), the report claimed that the devastating floods were caused by the actions of a “gang of four fanatics” led by Kabul Khan, one of the four apprehended in connection with a breach in the embankment at Bethukandi.
“The CID investigation may reveal the jihadist thought of damaging the embankment, but the brunt of the audacity of the arrested religious fanatic Kabul Khan and his associates was borne by the lakhs of people of the city, who are mostly Hindus,” read the article written by Organiser’s senior journalist Dibya Bordoloi.
The article claimed that Khan and his companions “dug up a part” of the embankment so that the floodwater entering their homes could recede into the river.
“Due to this destructive act, the Barak river, filled with rainwater, breached the damaged embankment. Subsequently, river water entered Silchar with the second wave of floods, submerging the entire city after 20 June.”
Speaking to the media on 6 July, Cachar Superintendent of Police (SP) Ramandeep Kaur had ruled out the possibility of any “communal angle” in the floods.
The under-representation of Muslims within the BJP, concerns over population control, the war in Ukraine and the economic crisis in Sri Lanka are some of the other issues that found mention in the Hindu Right press this past week.
This story was originally published in theprint.in . Read the full story here
