Surge in attacks on Muslims in UP, say activists

AGRA/MEERUT: In a three-part video that went viral in June this year, a group of Hindu men can be seen beating and parading a Muslim youth in Shamli, announcing “this fate awaits all cow slaughterers”. Dozens of onlookers watched the man, later identified as Riyaz, being thrashed with a belt. In the video’s third part, police arrive on the scene and arrest the victim instead of his attackers.Thousands have shared the video uploaded on June 27 — a topic of heated discussion on social media.
On February 19, in Saharanpur, Jahangir (24), died after a group of Hindu youths assaulted him. On June 15, one Haidar Ali was severely beaten up, tied to a motorcycle and dragged for several metres in Pilibhit, allegedly after a scuffle with Hindu youths.
Mohammad Akhlaq’s murder in Dadri has the country talking,butMuslim groups say attacks againstthem have seen a steep rise in UP of late.
According to Mashkoor Alam, coordinator of NGO Action Aid thathas provided data to National Commission for Minority Rights, the number of such attacks in the past year stands at 130. The home ministry, too, said UP saw over 100 “communal riots” last year. In December 2014, Union MoS for home Kiren Rijiju told Lok Sabha 90 people were killed in 561 incidents of communal violence across India till October 2014. Of these, the maximum — 25 — were killed in UP.
The national crime records bureau report of 2014 has stated western UP had the highest instances of riots in the state. Muslims across the restive belt have been saying trade in beef or its consumption are increasingly being used as an excuse to assault the minority community. Or there is the sensitive issue of ‘love jihad’ used as a ruse. On June 28, a 25-year-old man waskilled and about a dozen injured in cross-fi ring after communal clashes in Rampur-Maniharan locality of Saharanpur that, eyewitnesses said, were triggered by a “molestation” incident.

Before that, on May 4, fi ve members of Tablighi Jamaat, a religious movement that started as an offshoot of the Deobandi movement in 1927 and has now spread to millions across countries, were attacked in a Delhi-bound train in Shamli. Tension erupted in the region after a mob clashed with police at the local Kandhla police station.
Such attacks are concentrated in west UP but not confi ned to the region. The Muslim community observed a peaceful bandh in Faizabad on August 24 to protest a case of alleged arson in which unknown miscreants are said to have hurled petrol bombs at a place of worship. Some unidentified persons tried to set a mosque, also the local office of Jamiat Ulema Hind, on fi re on August 17. An FIR was lodged but no arrests followed.
Maulana Khalid Rashid, from Lucknow’s Firangi Mahal, said fear among Muslims is apparent these days. “PM Modi should discourage this kind of politics. Vitriolic comments of Yogi Adityanath and Sakshi Maharaj affect the youth and we have 20-yearolds attacking us.” The police partly blame social media for the “mischief”. State ADG Daljeet Singh Chaudhary told TOI, “Some groups constantly try to foment communal tensions... Trouble mongers excessively use social media to disturb peace. To counter it, we have set up a social media monitoring lab in Meerut.”
(With inputs from Sandeep Rai & Eram Agha)