Muslim driver brutally assaulted by Hindu militants in Gujarat
A Muslim driver, Ahmed Hussain Sheikh, 24, was brutally beaten by a group of Hindu militants associated with the Bajrang Dal in Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled Gujarat’s Ahmedabad. Sheikh has endured severe injuries – visible and internal, with seven stitches above his left eye and a huge bump on his head.
Sheikh’s passenger, a Hindu man, accidentally spat the tobacco he was chewing and it landed on one of the Hindu extremist men outside who then stopped the vehicle and started beating Sheikh, even though the Hindu passenger confessed that it was he and not the driver who spat the tobacco outside, and his intention was not to spit on anyone.
Pastors arrested in Uttar Pradesh over allegations of forced conversion
In BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh’s Ghazipur, police arrested three pastors over allegations of indulging in forced religious conversions. Uttar Pradesh is one of nine states that have passed stringent and undemocratic laws criminalizing conversion to religions other than Hinduism. Many of the states that have passed anti-conversion laws are ruled by the far-right BJP.
Hindu monk calls for banning Muslims from entering Ayodhya
In Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, far-right monk Yati Narsinghanand delivered a hate speech peddling conspiracy theories targeting Muslims. He called for a complete ban on Muslims from entering Ayodhya city, where the consecration ceremony of the Ram Temple on the site of the demolished Babri mosque, is to be held soon.
In Giridih, Jharkhand Hindu militant group Bajrang Dal leader delivered an inflammatory speech indulging in fear-mongering against Muslims. In Solapur, Maharashtra, Hindu supremacist group, Hindu Rashtra Sena leader Dhananjay Desai delivered an inflammatory speech targeting Muslims.
Police open fire at alleged “cattle smugglers,” victims sustain bullet wounds
In BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura, police fired at an alleged “cattle smuggler,” who sustained bullet injuries in his leg. The incident is the latest in an ongoing trend of violent attacks against predominantly Muslim cattle traders by law enforcement. Over the last month, multiple instances of injuries and the death of a Muslim man due to police firing have occurred over the same allegations.
