A twenty-five-year old Muslim bangle seller from Uttar Pradesh was beaten by a mob in Indore, Madhya Pradesh for ‘selling bangles in a Hindu area’. After a video of the incident went viral on social, it drew ire from Congress leaders who criticized Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The police have filed an FIR and as per latest reports arrested two people.
Aas Mohammad Kaif | TwoCircles.net
MADHYA PRADESH – After a mob in Indore, Madhya Pradesh attacked a young Muslim bangle-seller for selling bangles in a “Hindu locality,” the victim said he “feels terribly scared.”
A video of the incident, which has gone viral on social media, shows a group of men attacking the youth and beating him. The video shows some people slapping, and kicking the Muslim bangle-seller and demanding him to never enter ‘any other Hindu area’.
The bangle-seller identified as twenty-five-year-old Taslim said that “his only fault was that he was Muslim.”
The video shows the victim’s belongings being vandalized as he is getting beaten. “I was warned that no Muslim should come to sell goods in a Hindu locality,” he said.
After the video was circulated on social media, the Congress Minority Department President Imran Pratapgarhi responded strongly to the ‘attempted mob lynching’ incident. He has instructed the local Congress workers of Indore to help the young man. Meanwhile, the Congress MLA Arif Masood got an FIR registered against the mob.
At the time of filing this report, two persons have been arrested.
Taslim is a resident of Biraj Mau in the Hardoi district of Uttar Pradesh and works as a hawker selling bangles in Madhya Pradesh.
On August 22 at around 2:30 p.m., he had gone to the Banganga area of Indore in Madhya Pradesh to sell bangles. Reportedly, he was selling bangles when five to six men approached him, led by a man clad in yellow clothes.
According to Taslim, the man in yellow attire started beating him saying “Being a Muslim [you] sell goods in a Hindu locality” and took away all his belongings. The assailant, who called himself a Hindutva leader, also asked people to stay away from buying from the bangle-seller, reports said.
Even though the video of the incident was widely circulated on social media, the police registered a case against unknown persons.
“I have committed no crime. I am from Uttar Pradesh and I am working here to sell bangles,” Taslim said.
He said that he was questioned by the mob why was he (a Muslim) selling bangles in a Hindu area. “The leader in yellow clothes was asking people to beat me up. Is it a crime for me to be a Muslim? I was selling bangles to feed my family. I was not doing anything wrong. I feel very upset,” Taslim said.
Reacting to the incident, Congress leader Imran Pratapgarhi said that he was “shocked by the incident and he could not sleep through the night.” Local activists had sent him a video where Taslim was being attacked and beaten. “In the video, the innocent Tasleem is being openly tortured just for being a Muslim. The worst thing is that a man is saying that one should kill everyone. A minor child is also trying to kill a mazlum youth, Taslim! After all, what kind of hate is this? Shivraj Sarkar of Madhya Pradesh should understand that this video is not from Afghanistan but from the heart of Indore city. This incident is shocking,” Pratapgarhi said.
The residents of Indore have condemned the incident. A resident of the area Naval Kishore told TwoCircles.net that the “incident will be remembered as a stigma for Indore.”
“The culture of Indore is of cooperation and brotherhood and the people who cultivate hatred have done the work of sabotaging this brotherhood. This is completely wrong. Nobody supports this,” he said.
Commenting on the incident, the Superintendent of Police (East) said that “16 people have been identified in this case, in which mainly the role of Rakesh Tomar, Rajkumar Bhatnagar, Vivek Vyas has been revealed.”
“They have instigated people. Action will be taken against all the culprits based on the video. FIR was earlier registered in unknown but now we have identified. We will take strict action in this matter. A case has been registered under serious sections. We will arrest everyone very soon,” SP East added.
Commenting on the attempted mob-lynching incident, Madhya Pradesh’s Home Minister Narottam Mishra on Monday said the man was selling bangles using a fake Hindu name. He further said that the investigation is underway.”