India Police Nab 21 over Anti-Muslim Violence
Chandrapal Singh, a senior administrative officer of Mainpuri district, said on Saturday that police arrested at least 21 people from across the troubled region over the act of violence.
“A rumor spread (on Friday) that a cow has been slaughtered, after which some people beat up the men and resorted to arson,” media outlets quoted Singh as saying.
However, a post-mortem of the cow showed that it had died for a while as a result of some ailment, the official said.
Singh added that the men were only removing its skin when they came under attack by the furious mob, he added.
Indian media outlets said some 500 people armed with iron rods and bamboo sticks had set fire to dozens shops belonging to Muslims after the incident. At least two Muslim men were seriously wounded during the violence and are said to be in critical condition.
Local resident said that police fired tear gas in order to disperse the mob.
The latest incident comes days after Mohammad Akhlaq, a Muslim man, was dragged from his house in the village of Bisada in Uttar Pradesh and beaten to death by about 100 people on September 28. The man was killed over rumors that he had eaten beef, a taboo in the Hindu-majority nation.
Akhlaq’s 22-year-old son was also seriously injured in the attack.
Incidents of anti-Muslim violence have fueled concerns as religious intolerance is growing under the Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The premier has been urged to speak out on the case after colleagues in his party came under increasing pressure for appearing to downplay the crime.
Slaughtering cows is banned in many states of India, where the majority of the population is Hindu.
However, India is also home to sizeable Muslim, Christian and Buddhist minorities.
Modi has fallen short of condemning the violence against Muslim and some other religious communities. However, the premier has recently appealed for religious unity, saying the nation would only prosper “when Hindus and Muslims unite and fight” against poverty.
Source: Press TV
