By News Desk
This year Valentine’s Day witnessed a surge in attacks and moral policing by right-wing Hindutva outfits in North India and the highest number of attack reports emerged from Uttar Pradesh.
The Hindutva members including Bajrang Dal and Hindu Jagran Manch raided public parks and harassed, assaulted as well as humiliated unmarried couples using “Bharatiya Sanskriti” (Indian culture) claims as their basis to justify their attacks.
These extremists direct most of their attacks toward interfaith couples while using ‘love jihad’ baseless accusations to support their claims. “Love jihad” is a conspiracy theory that accuses Muslim men of intentionally and strategically alluring and entrapping non-Muslim women with the intent to “convert them” to Islam and marry them as part of an “Islamisation project”.
Attacks during Valentine’s Day
A series of videos that surfaced on social media on Thursday, February 13 shows the group wielding wooden batons and threatening couples sitting in public parks. The men wearing saffron scarves were seen confronting the young couples by inspecting their identity documents.
Another video shows a saffron-clad man grabbing a book from a young woman, who can be heard pleading, “Uncle please give me the book back”.
This story was originally published in siasat.com. Read the full story here.
