Police drop name of prime accused in lynching case after militant threats
Hindu militant leader Mohit Yadav alias Monu Manesar, who was earlier named as accused in the brutal burning and lynching of two Muslim men in Hindu supremacist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled Haryana state, was dropped from law enforcement’s new list of accused persons in the case after Manesar’s Hindu supremacist supporters made threats against police.
Hindu supremacists conducted a number of public rallies in support of Manesar and cow vigilante violence. His militant supporters at the rally made threatening speeches addressing the police, warning them not to make any attempt to search or arrest Manesar.
“If Rajasthan Police raids the houses of Monu Manesar or the people associated with him, then the police will come, but won’t be able to go back on their feet,” one speaker threatened.
The two Muslim men, Junaid and Nasir, were brutally attacked and burned alive over false suspicions of cow theft. Manesar, who was previously the prime accused in the case, is part of the violent Hindu militant group Bajrang Dal, and has been involved in several cow vigilante attacks.
Cow vigilantism, or Hindu mob violence against Muslims who transport or slaughter cows, has become dangerously commonplace in Hindu supremacist Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s India.
Police in BJP-ruled Gujarat justify public flogging of Muslims
Responding to a petition submitted in the High Court of Hindu supremacist BJP-ruled Gujarat state by Muslim men who were publicly flogged by police officials, police attempted to justify the hateful incident as being done to “maintain peace and harmony,” while another policeman claimed that flogging was done “in discharge of their duties.”
Nine Muslim men were restrained and publicly flogged by Gujarat police on October 3, 2022, in front of a cheering crowd of Hindu extremist spectators. The video of the public humiliation then went viral.
The petitioners demanded action against the 15 police personnel who had tied them to poles and flogged them in public.
Internationally recognized human rights organizations Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch had slammed Indian authorities after a video of the public flogging went viral. Amnesty had termed it a “serious human rights violation.”
Hindu militants barge into Christian school, demand to put up images of Hindu deities
Members of the Hindu militant groups Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal barged into a Catholic school in BJP-ruled Gujarat state and caused a day-long ruckus, demanding to put up pictures of Hindu deities inside classrooms and the principal’s office.
Father Teles Fernandes, secretary of the Gujarat Education Board of Catholic Institutions, has asked Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel to provide protection to the school and take action against members of the Hindu extremist mob.
Christians, who make up 2.3 percent of India’s 1.4 billion population, are facing increased persecution from Hindu nationalist groups ever since the BJP led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi assumed power in 2014.
