An autopsy report said that Hussain died of a cardiac failure, but his family and eyewitnesses maintain that he was beaten to death. The state police have arrested one person.Ĥ4-year-old Zaffer Hussain died after being beaten by civic officials in Pratapgarh, Rajasthan after he objected to them photographing and taking videos of women defecating in the open, ostensibly for a sanitation campaign. Survivors’ accounts in some media reports say that at least 20 people were involved in the attack. Junaid was called a ‘mulla’, a ‘beef-eater’, and his skull cap thrown away, before he was stabbed. However the state police maintain that there was no religious motive for the attack.ġ5-year-old Junaid Khan was stabbed to death inside a train in Haryana, when an argument about seating arrangements turned into an attack based on religious identity. Three people have been arrested so far, and a murder case registered. Nasirul Haque, Mohammed Samiruddin and Mohammed Nasir, three construction workers, were beaten to death by a mob, allegedly for stealing cows, in North Dinajpur, West Bengal. Police officials told journalists that the attackers had also thrown stones at them, injuring 50 police personnel. Usman Ansari, a dairy farmer, was beaten up by a mob of about 100 people and part of his house set on fire, reportedly after a dead cow was seen outside his house. All these attacks are deplorable, and seem to indicate a weakening of the rule of law.” Recent hate crimes against Muslims “Mob violence has occurred in other cases too, including attacks on Dalits suspected of illegally transporting cows, the killing of alleged child traffickers in Jharkhand, and the lynching of a police officer at a mosque in Kashmir. State police departments must ensure that those responsible are brought to justice.
The Indian Prime Minister, senior BJP leaders and Chief Ministers must break their silence and unequivocally condemn the attacks. “This growing trend of Islamophobia needs to be stopped in its tracks. BJP leaders have ignored, or worse, even justified the attacks at times. “The BJP’s campaign for cow protection appears to have emboldened vigilante groups, who seem to be operating in some cases with the tacit approval of state authorities. Unfortunately both the Prime Minister and various Chief Ministers have done little to show that they disapprove of this violence,” said Aakar Patel, Executive Director, Amnesty International India. “The pattern of hate crimes committed against Muslims with seeming impunity – many of them in states where the Bharatiya Janata Party is in power – is deeply worrying. On 28 June, demonstrations against the attacks on Muslims are being held in several cities across India. The attacks have contributed to a growing sense of insecurity for many Muslims, and intensified religious tensions. Since April 2017, at least ten Muslim men have been lynched or killed in public in suspected hate crimes, amid a rising tide of Islamophobia in the country. Indian authorities must ensure that there is no impunity for those responsible for public lynchings and other hate crimes against Muslims in several states, said Amnesty International India today. India: Hate crimes against Muslims and rising Islamophobia must be condemned