by SHEIKH SAALIQ and KRUTIKA PATHI
Associated Press
NEW DELHI, India (AP) — Tensions were high in the western Indian city of Udaipur in late June, a day after police arrested two Muslim men accused of severing a Hindu tailor in a brutal attack , underscoring a dramatic escalation in communal violence in a country torn apart by deep religious polarization.
Police said Hindu man Kanhaiya Lal was repeatedly stabbed by two knife-wielding men in his tailor shop on June 28, and they filmed the attack and posted it online, warning the incident could be fatal. Raise religious tensions and lead to violence. The video shows the tailor measuring Lal before an attacker attacked him from behind and stabbed him in the throat with a cleaver.
Television reports showed Lal lying on the ground cutting his throat. The pair later claimed responsibility for the killing in a separate video and accused Lal of blasphemy. They also threatened to kill Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the same way, wielding the bloodstained weapons they used to attack Lal.
Local media reported that the victim allegedly shared a social media post of a suspended spokesman for Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, who made controversial remarks about the Prophet Muhammad in May.
The killings follow months of tensions between Hindus and Muslims, and a spate of attacks by Hindu nationalists on minorities, especially Muslims, ranging from food and clothing styles to different faiths. All aspects of marriage, etc. have become targets of attack. More recently, Muslim homes have also been bulldozed in some Indian states, a situation that critics say is shaping a growing pattern of “bulldozer justice” targeting minorities.
Those tensions escalated in May, when two spokesman for Modi’s party made speculative remarks that were seen as insulting to Islam’s prophet Muhammad and his wife Aisha. Both were later suspended by Modi’s party after this led to a severe diplomatic backlash against India in many Muslim-dominated countries. The controversy also caused protests in India to turn violent in some places after demonstrators threw rocks at police. At least two people were killed.
Experts worry that recent events could exacerbate India’s religious fault lines, which critics say have deepened since Modi came to power in 2014.
Sushant Singh, a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Studies, a public policy think tank, said: “This horrific event could lead to an escalation of religious tensions across India, especially if the ruling party supports the cause of the very sharp Hindu majority. “
“It is unlikely that this government or leadership will go out of their way to tell supporters not to be provoked and to urge calm and peace,” he said.
Attacks on people accused of blasphemy are common in neighboring Muslim-majority countries such as Bangladesh and Pakistan. But in India, where religious tensions often escalate to sporadic riots and deadly protests, brutal killings of this nature are rare.
In May, a Hindu man in the southern city of Hyderabad was publicly stabbed to death by relatives of his Muslim wife. Last year, a Muslim man was beheaded by members of a self-defense group at the order of his girlfriend’s Hindu family because they disapproved of their interreligious marriage. In Rajasthan in 2017, a Hindu man brutally killed a Muslim laborer and shared a video of the victim being hacked to death and then set on fire.
Police said the two accused were arrested within hours of Lal’s death, but to calm nerves in parts of the city, authorities suspended internet service in Rajasthan and banned large gatherings. Authorities have also sent more police to the city to deal with any religious unrest.
India’s Home Ministry has sent a team from its counter-terrorism agency to Rajasthan to investigate whether the killing had any links to terrorist groups. So far, state police have not charged the two arrested men with terrorism charges.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot ensured a prompt investigation into Lal’s killing. Criminals will be punished, he said, and urged people not to share the video on social media because it was highly inflammatory.
“I once again call on everyone to be at peace,” Garrett said in a tweet.
