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Hyderabad: In yet another case of anti-Muslim hate crime, radical Hindu organizations took to the streets in Khargone, asking Muslim run businesses to be shut down. The incident was triggered by the alleged discovery of some animal meat which the saffron mob claims was cow meat.
Acting on that assumption, they shut down shops and even ransacked some of the businesses run by the minority community’s businessmen in the locality. Slogans like “Goli maaro saalon ko” (Shoot the rascals) and “Bandh karo, Bandh karo” (shut down the shops) were seen on a video which has gone viral on Twitter.
The video which was originally shared by Kashik Kavik, a journalist from Newsclick, shows a Muslim auto driver questioning the camera person. “Maine kya Gunah kiya tha? (What sin did I do),” he asks as he points to his auto which he says has been damaged. The victim in question is surrounded by two other young men.
All the men in question have blood on their faces and are significantly injured as a result of the mob violence.
The video also shows police men resorting to lathi-charge to quell the situation. It is unclear who all were affected by the police action as of yet. However, many people in the market in Khargone have been affected. An FIR has been registered and the police is said to look into the matter soon.
Aside this from this incident, the month of August this year also witnessed a number of anti-Muslim hate crimes in India, particularly in the Hindi belt. While the basis for any form of hate crime is unjustified, the arguments put forth by the perpetrators of the crime are worthy of notice.
The crimes were perpetrated by members of right-wing Hindutva groups, devotees of Yati Narasinghanand Saraswati, and in some cases even saw the presence and vociferous support from political leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The reasons given by the perpetrators of the crime vary from an inane desire to protect Hindu women, to an unfound fear of Muslims taking up jobs “meant for Hindus” which they call “economic jihad”.
This story first appeared on siasat.com