Inspired By ‘The Kashmir Files,’ Hindu Extremists Threaten To Remove Muslims From Uttarakhand Village 

Hindu extremists in an Uttarakhand village have made serious threats against the local Muslim community, inspired by the hateful anti-Muslim propaganda film ‘The Kashmir Files.’ 

Several Muslim residents fled the village after Hindu supremacist leaders declared that they would take “action against conspirators (Muslims),” planning to stage a protest if “Muslims are not put behind bars,” threatening to bulldoze their houses and host a Hindu extremist hate speech event. Hindu extremists went as far as to station a bulldozer outside of the Muslim area, while residents were asked to “surrender themselves.”

“They are jihadis, conspiring against us Hindus, it is sad to see that they eat here, but they talk of tearing the nation apart,” said Naveen Saini, a local affiliate of the paramilitary Hindu supremacist group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). 

Saini openly stated that he had been inspired by the ‘The Kashmir Files,’ saying, “The movie inspired me so much, it brought tears to my eyes… The pattern across the country is clear, they (Muslims) pelt stones on our processions, this is exactly what they did here. They made an announcement from the mosques to gather arms, which led to the violence. We had to do something.” 

Saini’s faulty narration of events leaves out the extreme harassment, provocation, and hate crimes committed by Hindu extremists leading processions during Ram Navami, which included genocidal chants nationwide. Muslim residents say that Hindu extremists initiated the stone pelting.

“They threw stones at our homes, we had to lock ourselves up to protect ourselves. They broke everything,” said one eyewitness. “They tried barging into our homes, I could hear them beating sticks on the doors of my home as I ran up the terrace to protect myself and my children. We climbed on to our neighbor’s terrace and managed to hide away until it settled.”

Family of Man Killed During Khargone Communal Violence Alleges Police’s Role

The family of Ibris Khan, a 28-year-old man who went missing during an outbreak of violence during a Ram Navami procession in Madhya Pradesh’s Khargone, has accused local police of playing a role in his death. 

Khan’s family discovered his body in a hospital morgue seven days after he went missing. While the postmortem report states that Ibris died of severe head injuries, Khan’s brother, Iqhlak, has accused the police and the residents of Khargone of being involved in the killing of his brother. 

Khan’s mother, Mumtaz, who is also an eyewitness to the clashes in Khargone, said that when Ibris went out after Iftar to pray at a mosque, he was attacked by a raging mob. Before the family could intervene, she said, he was dragged into a police van as he suffered a serious head injury.

Ibris was detained along with his friends that evening. His mother, however, said that he was not sent to jail with the other arrested men. “He was killed by the police,” Mumtaz stated. 

Reports of police brutality and violence against Muslims are increasing in Khargone, along with videos of police beating unarmed Muslim men, including the elderly, without any provocation.  

Kashmir University Scholar Arrested for 2011 Article; Fresh Charges on ‘Kashmir Walla’ Editor

Jammu & Kashmir police’s recently created anti-terror agency arrested Abul Aala Fazili, a PhD scholar at the University of Kashmir, over an article he wrote in 2011 for The Kashmir Walla, a digital media outlet whose editor, Fahad Shah, has been languishing in jail since February this year. According to reports, a team of J&K’s elite State Investigation Agency (SIA), which was formed last year for exclusively probing terrorism cases, raided Fazili’s residence in Srinagar city on April 17. 

Aala, a vocal human rights activist, had written a piece titled ‘The Shackles of Slavery Will Break,’ which the SIA described as “highly provocative, seditious and intended to create unrest in Jammu and Kashmir,” and written “with the purpose of abetting the youth to take the path of violence by glorifying terrorism.”

“But certainly we have succeeded in shaking their hold over Kashmir and creating ripples within their establishments – we have succeeded in tearing their mask of non-violence and democracy – we have exposed their demonic criminal conduct before their conscientious people,” Aala wrote in the article.

Simultaneous raids were carried out at Shah’s residence and The Kashmir Walla office in Srinagar. The agency has accused Shah of “waging war against the Government of India,” “spreading disaffection against the government,” and “criminal conspiracy” in its police report.

In a statement, The Kashmir Walla said the laptops of two reporters, another from the outlet’s multimedia department, six hard drives, and five CDs were seized during the raid. 

The judicial harassment and targeting of journalists is nothing new in Muslim-majority Kashmir, which has been under brutal Indian occupation for decades. A report released by the Rights & Risks Analysis Group (RRAG), a New Delhi-based think tank, stated that the highest number of journalists/media organizations targeted was in Jammu and Kashmir, with 25 attacks on individuals and news outlets reported in 2021. 

Mob Of 40-50 Hindu Extremists Brutally Attack Muslim Men In Gujarat

A mob of 40-50 Hindu extremists brutally attacked a group of Muslim men in Vadodra, Gujarat, with no provocation other than learning that the men were Muslim. Shahbaaz Ali and his friends were on their way home from having a cup of tea when they spotted the mob waiting on their bikes, with pipes in their hands. 

Ali recounted the brutal incident in a video that has gone viral on social media. In the video, he can be seen with a bloody gash on his forehead and one eye swollen shut.

“They stopped me and asked me for my name. Upon hearing my [Muslim] name, a guy named Chintu attacked me and then the mob joined him. Once my friend and I fell to the ground, the entire mob started thrashing us. They hit us on the back and on the head as well,” Ali said.

A similar incident had taken place in the same city, where a young Muslim man was beaten by a Hindu extremist mob after they asked his name to discern his religion.