Mob lynchings of Muslims and Dalits are linked to Sangh Parivar: Asaduddin Owaisi
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said that mob lynchings were not going to stop as the BJP and RSS have increased hate against Muslims in the society.
ADVERTISEMENT
India Today Web Desk
New Delhi
June 30, 2019UPDATED: June 30, 2019 16:28 IST
Asaduddin Owaisi
Asaduddin Owaisi said, "They [BJP-RSS] have successfully created a mindset where Muslims are seen as terrorists, anti-nationals and cow slaughterers." (Photo: PTI)
Hyderabad MP and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi held the Sangh Parivar responsible for the recent spate of crimes where individuals were beaten up for not chanting Jai Shri Ram.
Asaduddin Owaisi said only Dalits and Muslims were being targetted.
"People are being beaten up if they do not raise slogans of Jai Shri Ram and Vande Mataram. Such incidents aren't going to stop. Only Muslims and Dalits are being targeted. There are organisations behind such incidents and all of them are linked to Sangh Parivar," Asaduddin Owaisi told ANI.
Asaduddin Owaisi's statement came days after a 24-year-old man, Tabrez Ansari, was thrashed by a mob in Jharkhand for alleged theft and was forced to chant Jai Shri Ram and Jai Hanuman.
Condemning the Jharkhand lynching, Owaisi had said that incidents now followed a familiar pattern.
"This is the pattern with almost all lynchings. First, a Muslim is murdered by cow lovers. Then the most ridiculous excuses begin: a 'suspicion' of beef possession, theft, smuggling & love jihad. So much for 'sabka vishwas' when we can be killed over mere 'suspicions'," he said in a tweet.
Earlier in the week, Asaduddin Owaisi had said that lynchings were not going to stop as the BJP and RSS have increased hate against Muslims in the society.
"Incidents of mob lynching are not going to stop because BJP and RSS have increased a sense of hatred against Muslims," the Hyderabad MP said.
He said, "They have successfully created a mindset where Muslims are seen as terrorists, anti-nationals and cow slaughterers."
ADVERTISEMENT
In the past week, reports have come from across India of people being beaten up for refusing to chant Jai Shri Ram.
On Friday, a 16-year-old Muslim boy was allegedly beaten by unidentified men in Kanpur for wearing a traditional skull cap and refusing to chant Jai Shri Ram.
Before that, three were arrested by police in Thane, Maharashtra for allegedly beating up a Muslim cab driver and later asking him to chant Jai Shri Ram.
16-year-old Muslim boy thrashed in Kanpur for refusing to chant Jai Shri Ram
The incident occurred yesterday when Mohammad Taj, a resident of Barra, was returning home after offering namaz in Kidwai Nagar.
ADVERTISEMENT
Press Trust of India
Press Trust of India
Kanpur
June 29, 2019UPDATED: June 29, 2019 21:25 IST
Three or four unidentified motorcyclists stopped the minor boy a few hundred metres from his house for overtaking them and objected to him wearing the skull cap. (Photo: Representational image)
HIGHLIGHTS
A minor Muslim boy was thrashed by unidentified men in Kanpur
The boy was beaten by the group for wearing skull cap and not chanting Jai Shri Ram
An FIR has been registered in the case, said a police officer
A16-year-old Muslim boy was allegedly beaten by unidentified men here for wearing a traditional skull cap and refusing to chant "Jai Shri Ram", police said today.
The incident occurred yesterday when Mohammad Taj, a resident of Barra, was returning home after offering namaz in Kidwai Nagar.
Three or four unidentified motorcyclists stopped Taj a few hundred metres from his house for overtaking them and objected to him wearing the skull cap, Station House Officer (Barra) Satish Kumar Singh said.
Mr. Singh said the attackers asked the teenager to chant "Jai Shri Ram", and kicked and punched him badly after he refused to do so.
"They removed my cap, pinned me down and beat me black and blue while asking me to chant 'Jai Shri Ram'," Taj told PTI. He alleged that the men told him that wearing the skull cap was "not allowed" in the area.
The teenager said he cried for help and begged a couple of shopkeepers to rescue him. Later, he added, some passersby rushed to help him, following which the attackers fled.
An FIR has been registered under the Indian Penal Code, including Section 153A (causing enmity between people of different religions), Mr. Singh said. A medical examination of the victim has been done and efforts are on to identify the accused, he added.
The 24-year-old Tabrez Ansari was assaulted by a mob in Jharkhand on suspicion of theft on June 18. He succumbed to injuries on June 22 at a local hospital. The attack had a clear communal tone as the victim was forced to say "Jai Shri Ram" and "Jai Hanuman".
The state police should also be held accountable for his death because despite being thrashed badly by a mob which incurred injuries to Ansari, police didn’t take him to hospital and only took to hospital on June 22 when his condition deteriorated.
Seldom has a month passed in last five years when we didn’t get to read the news of any individual being lynched and whether it’s the whatsapp and social media videos spreading rumours about child lifting or cow vigilantes giving justice on the spot, the victims have been killed by mob high of either religious frenzy or blind fear cum love for their children.
22 killed in just two months
The mob frenzy had gone berserk last year when 22 people were killed between May 10 and July 2 last in 16 different cases and most of the cases were related to child lifting rumours where the mob decided to do on the spot justice and one major cases came from Maharashtra on July 1, 2018 where five people who were suspected to be part of child lifter gang were killed by village in Dhule district of Maharashtra.
Child lifter lynching
REUTERS
DON'T MISS
The social media has a buzz that a child lifting gang was active in the area and there the villagers took law and order in their hand.
P Child lifters lynching case
The ferocity of the public can be fathomed by a single incident in Assam that took place in July 1, where a mentally disturbed woman was tied to a pole and tortured by a mob in suspicion of being a child lifter. IndiaToday had reported.
The cow-vigilantes running riot
Mohammed Akhlaw, Pehlu Khan, Rakhbar Khan and many more- the list is quite big and we are certain a few name even if we compile it with full alertness. Majority of the lynching that have been happening in India are related to cow-vigilantes and their knack to doing quick justice.
tripura lynching
AFP/REPRESENTATIONAL IMAGE
The video of Pehlu Khan, a dairy farmer from Mewat, Haryana, thrashed by these self-proclaimed gau-rakshaks in Alwar district shook the nation. The victim died days later in hospital and police due to media pressure arrested some people and gave them clean chit later and removed their names from the FIR.
Pehlu Khan
Pehlu Khan, video screenshot
According to IndiaSpend factchecker, since 2014, there have a total of 124 incidents of violence where cow-vigilantes were involved in which out of 302 victims, 47 people were killed in the violence while 172 received serious injuries in the assault inflicted upon them by the cow vigilantes.
16-year-old Muslim boy thrashed in Kanpur for refusing to chant Jai Shri Ram
The incident occurred yesterday when Mohammad Taj, a resident of Barra, was returning home after offering namaz in Kidwai Nagar.
ADVERTISEMENT
Press Trust of India
Press Trust of India
Kanpur
June 29, 2019UPDATED: June 29, 2019 21:25 IST
Three or four unidentified motorcyclists stopped the minor boy a few hundred metres from his house for overtaking them and objected to him wearing the skull cap. (Photo: Representational image)
HIGHLIGHTS
A minor Muslim boy was thrashed by unidentified men in Kanpur
The boy was beaten by the group for wearing skull cap and not chanting Jai Shri Ram
An FIR has been registered in the case, said a police officer
A16-year-old Muslim boy was allegedly beaten by unidentified men here for wearing a traditional skull cap and refusing to chant "Jai Shri Ram", police said today.
The incident occurred yesterday when Mohammad Taj, a resident of Barra, was returning home after offering namaz in Kidwai Nagar.
Three or four unidentified motorcyclists stopped Taj a few hundred metres from his house for overtaking them and objected to him wearing the skull cap, Station House Officer (Barra) Satish Kumar Singh said.
Mr. Singh said the attackers asked the teenager to chant "Jai Shri Ram", and kicked and punched him badly after he refused to do so.
"They removed my cap, pinned me down and beat me black and blue while asking me to chant 'Jai Shri Ram'," Taj told PTI. He alleged that the men told him that wearing the skull cap was "not allowed" in the area.
The teenager said he cried for help and begged a couple of shopkeepers to rescue him. Later, he added, some passersby rushed to help him, following which the attackers fled.
An FIR has been registered under the Indian Penal Code, including Section 153A (causing enmity between people of different religions), Mr. Singh said. A medical examination of the victim has been done and efforts are on to identify the accused, he added.
Read | TMC delegation will be welcomed with Jai Shri Ram chants in Bhatpara: BJP MP Arjun Singh
Also Read | Workers of BJP, TMC clash over Jai Shri Ram chants, one injured in accidental firing by police
Spate Of Lynchings Target Minorities, Especially Muslims, In India
August 19, 20195:04 AM ET
Heard on Morning Edition
LAUREN FRAYER
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
6-Minute Listen
Download
Transcript
Mobs in India are lynching minorities. Many accuse the Hindu nationalist government of failing to forcefully condemn the violence. Activists have launched a hate crimes hotline in 100 Indian cities.
NOEL KING, HOST:
In India over the past couple of months, there's been a series of violent attacks on minorities, especially Muslims. The attackers often accuse their victims of smuggling beef. Now, beef is illegal in many Indian states because cows are sacred to Hindus. Videos of these brutal beatings have gone viral on social media. But for the most part, the attackers are not being punished. NPR's Lauren Frayer went to northern India and brought back this story.
(SOUNDBITE OF COURTYARD GATE OPENING)
LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE: Mohamed Irshad perches on a plastic stool in the muddy courtyard of his small family farm north of New Delhi. Slowly, in fits and starts, he describes his father's murder two years ago.
MOHAMED IRSHAD: (Foreign language spoken).
FRAYER: The family, who are Muslims, had been to a cattle fair. They were driving home in a truck, carrying four cows they had purchased, when a dozen strangers on motorcycles forced them off the road.
IRSHAD: (Through interpreter) They pulled us out of the truck. They were yelling that they wanted to protect cows from us Muslims. I showed them the receipts for the cows we bought, but they tore them up and started beating us with hockey sticks. I suffered internal bleeding. My brother and I barely survived, and all of India saw what happened to our father.
FRAYER: All of India saw the fatal beating because the attackers themselves recorded video and posted it on social media.
(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO)
UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: (Yelling in foreign language).
FRAYER: In the video, attackers praise Hindu gods as they punch 55-year-old Pehlu Khan. His white tunic splattered with blood, the father of eight pleads for his life, calling his attackers brother.
(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO)
PEHLU KHAN: (Foreign language spoken).
UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: (Yelling in foreign language).
FRAYER: That video is how Khan's widow, Jaibuna, learned of her husband's death. She was at home waiting for him to return from the cattle fair.
JAIBUNA: (Through interpreter) A neighbor came and showed me the video but then felt bad and ran away. People were saying, don't show her, this is her family. Everyone was panicking, and I couldn't take it. I fainted.
FRAYER: Before he died, Khan described his attackers to police. Six men were arrested, but charges were later dropped, and instead, Khan himself was charged posthumously with cow smuggling. Police say he didn't have a permit to transport cows across state lines. Khan's two sons, who were with him that day, are awaiting trial and face up to five years in prison.
JAIBUNA: (Foreign language spoken).
FRAYER: "It's like they're trying to erase us," Khan's widow, Jaibuna, says, "erase all of my people." Since a Hindu nationalist party won power in India five years ago, lynchings of minorities have surged. Human Rights Watch counted at least 44 murders over three years. Hundreds more have been injured. There have been very few prosecutions and hardly any public outrage.
RANA AYYUB: How do you stay silent? How does a majority stay silent and witness something, unless you believe that what's happening to them is the right thing?
FRAYER: Author Rana Ayyub believes that India's Hindu majority tacitly supports not murder but discrimination against Muslims. The Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not denounced this violent strain of Hindu nationalism. It's fueling prejudices that date back to India's founding.
AYYUB: You know, there has been this friction between Hindus and Muslims since the partition of India. And many of them believe that Muslims should have gone to Pakistan, and if they stay here then they should stay as second-class citizens.
FRAYER: A slogan has become part of these lynchings, "Jai Shri Ram," which means, praise Lord Ram, one of the Hindu gods. It used to be a mere prayer. Now it's a murder cry. Mobs chant this while they beat their victims. But it's also used by politicians.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Foreign language spoken).
FRAYER: Just this summer, lawmakers from Modi's Hindu nationalist party taunted their Muslim colleagues with that slogan. There is a very small fledgling movement of Indians, both Muslim and Hindu, fighting this.
(SOUNDBITE OF FOOTSTEPS)
FRAYER: Up a dank stairway in a Mumbai events hall, activists have gathered for an anti-hate crimes convention.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTIVIST: It is the time now to join hands against these crimes.
FRAYER: They call for brotherly love while police guard the entrance. Some here have been labeled anti-national, their loyalty to India called into question. Social scientist Vishnu Poruthiyil compares the mood in India right now to the post-Civil War period in America when many white people looked on as black people were lynched.
VISHNU PORUTHIYIL: The similarities with the American lynchings of the late-19th century are striking. Because it is almost like a spectacle so people watch it. They video themselves, and they put it up on social media.
(SOUNDBITE OF METAL DOORS OPENING)
FRAYER: In donated office space in New Delhi, Jagisha Arora is fielding phone calls from victims.
(SOUNDBITE OF PHONE RINGING)
JAGISHA ARORA: Hello? (Foreign language spoken).
FRAYER: She works at a new hate crimes help line created by volunteers. They've gotten 15,000 phone calls since launching last month.
ARORA: One person called me and said, like, I am at police station right now. The police are refusing to launch a complaint, and they are threatening us.
FRAYER: Arora connects callers to free legal aid in a hundred different Indian cities. But she also gets a different type of call, from people who are angry that this help line even exists.
ARORA: And some people, like, complain on so, like, why are you, like, spreading this...
FRAYER: So people call the help line to complain, to accuse you?
ARORA: Yeah. Accuse me, like, the Muslims are bad.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: (Foreign language spoken).
FRAYER: Mohammad Hashim came face to face with people who think that. He's a long-distance truck driver and a Muslim. Last year, a mob of Hindus on motorbikes forced him off the road.
MOHAMMAD HASHIM: (Through interpreter) They drag me out of the truck, accuse me of transporting beef, and started beating me. I was actually transporting refrigerators. But I'm just the driver, and I'm not allowed to open the back of the truck. It was locked. They pulled on my beard and tried to force me to chant "Jai Shri Ram." I thought, this is it, I'm going to die.
FRAYER: He woke up in a hospital bed instead, with a broken leg and fractured vertebrae. He was bedridden for six months. But now Hashim has to get back on the road. He needs to provide for his five children.
HASHIM: (Through interpreter) My children say, don't worry about us, Daddy. We can stay poor. We'll eat less. We want you to be safe.
FRAYER: They're scared that next time their father might not come home. Lauren Frayer, NPR News, in Haryana, India.
Copyright © 2019 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
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AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said that mob lynchings were not going to stop as the BJP and RSS have increased hate against Muslims in the society.
ADVERTISEMENT
India Today Web Desk
New Delhi
June 30, 2019UPDATED: June 30, 2019 16:28 IST
Asaduddin Owaisi
Asaduddin Owaisi said, "They [BJP-RSS] have successfully created a mindset where Muslims are seen as terrorists, anti-nationals and cow slaughterers." (Photo: PTI)
Hyderabad MP and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi held the Sangh Parivar responsible for the recent spate of crimes where individuals were beaten up for not chanting Jai Shri Ram.
Asaduddin Owaisi said only Dalits and Muslims were being targetted.
"People are being beaten up if they do not raise slogans of Jai Shri Ram and Vande Mataram. Such incidents aren't going to stop. Only Muslims and Dalits are being targeted. There are organisations behind such incidents and all of them are linked to Sangh Parivar," Asaduddin Owaisi told ANI.
Asaduddin Owaisi's statement came days after a 24-year-old man, Tabrez Ansari, was thrashed by a mob in Jharkhand for alleged theft and was forced to chant Jai Shri Ram and Jai Hanuman.
Condemning the Jharkhand lynching, Owaisi had said that incidents now followed a familiar pattern.
"This is the pattern with almost all lynchings. First, a Muslim is murdered by cow lovers. Then the most ridiculous excuses begin: a 'suspicion' of beef possession, theft, smuggling & love jihad. So much for 'sabka vishwas' when we can be killed over mere 'suspicions'," he said in a tweet.
Earlier in the week, Asaduddin Owaisi had said that lynchings were not going to stop as the BJP and RSS have increased hate against Muslims in the society.
"Incidents of mob lynching are not going to stop because BJP and RSS have increased a sense of hatred against Muslims," the Hyderabad MP said.
He said, "They have successfully created a mindset where Muslims are seen as terrorists, anti-nationals and cow slaughterers."
ADVERTISEMENT
In the past week, reports have come from across India of people being beaten up for refusing to chant Jai Shri Ram.
On Friday, a 16-year-old Muslim boy was allegedly beaten by unidentified men in Kanpur for wearing a traditional skull cap and refusing to chant Jai Shri Ram.
Before that, three were arrested by police in Thane, Maharashtra for allegedly beating up a Muslim cab driver and later asking him to chant Jai Shri Ram.
16-year-old Muslim boy thrashed in Kanpur for refusing to chant Jai Shri Ram
The incident occurred yesterday when Mohammad Taj, a resident of Barra, was returning home after offering namaz in Kidwai Nagar.
ADVERTISEMENT
Press Trust of India
Press Trust of India
Kanpur
June 29, 2019UPDATED: June 29, 2019 21:25 IST
Three or four unidentified motorcyclists stopped the minor boy a few hundred metres from his house for overtaking them and objected to him wearing the skull cap. (Photo: Representational image)
HIGHLIGHTS
A minor Muslim boy was thrashed by unidentified men in Kanpur
The boy was beaten by the group for wearing skull cap and not chanting Jai Shri Ram
An FIR has been registered in the case, said a police officer
A16-year-old Muslim boy was allegedly beaten by unidentified men here for wearing a traditional skull cap and refusing to chant "Jai Shri Ram", police said today.
The incident occurred yesterday when Mohammad Taj, a resident of Barra, was returning home after offering namaz in Kidwai Nagar.
Three or four unidentified motorcyclists stopped Taj a few hundred metres from his house for overtaking them and objected to him wearing the skull cap, Station House Officer (Barra) Satish Kumar Singh said.
Mr. Singh said the attackers asked the teenager to chant "Jai Shri Ram", and kicked and punched him badly after he refused to do so.
"They removed my cap, pinned me down and beat me black and blue while asking me to chant 'Jai Shri Ram'," Taj told PTI. He alleged that the men told him that wearing the skull cap was "not allowed" in the area.
The teenager said he cried for help and begged a couple of shopkeepers to rescue him. Later, he added, some passersby rushed to help him, following which the attackers fled.
An FIR has been registered under the Indian Penal Code, including Section 153A (causing enmity between people of different religions), Mr. Singh said. A medical examination of the victim has been done and efforts are on to identify the accused, he added.
The 24-year-old Tabrez Ansari was assaulted by a mob in Jharkhand on suspicion of theft on June 18. He succumbed to injuries on June 22 at a local hospital. The attack had a clear communal tone as the victim was forced to say "Jai Shri Ram" and "Jai Hanuman".
The state police should also be held accountable for his death because despite being thrashed badly by a mob which incurred injuries to Ansari, police didn’t take him to hospital and only took to hospital on June 22 when his condition deteriorated.
Seldom has a month passed in last five years when we didn’t get to read the news of any individual being lynched and whether it’s the whatsapp and social media videos spreading rumours about child lifting or cow vigilantes giving justice on the spot, the victims have been killed by mob high of either religious frenzy or blind fear cum love for their children.
22 killed in just two months
The mob frenzy had gone berserk last year when 22 people were killed between May 10 and July 2 last in 16 different cases and most of the cases were related to child lifting rumours where the mob decided to do on the spot justice and one major cases came from Maharashtra on July 1, 2018 where five people who were suspected to be part of child lifter gang were killed by village in Dhule district of Maharashtra.
Child lifter lynching
REUTERS
DON'T MISS
The social media has a buzz that a child lifting gang was active in the area and there the villagers took law and order in their hand.
P Child lifters lynching case
The ferocity of the public can be fathomed by a single incident in Assam that took place in July 1, where a mentally disturbed woman was tied to a pole and tortured by a mob in suspicion of being a child lifter. IndiaToday had reported.
The cow-vigilantes running riot
Mohammed Akhlaw, Pehlu Khan, Rakhbar Khan and many more- the list is quite big and we are certain a few name even if we compile it with full alertness. Majority of the lynching that have been happening in India are related to cow-vigilantes and their knack to doing quick justice.
tripura lynching
AFP/REPRESENTATIONAL IMAGE
The video of Pehlu Khan, a dairy farmer from Mewat, Haryana, thrashed by these self-proclaimed gau-rakshaks in Alwar district shook the nation. The victim died days later in hospital and police due to media pressure arrested some people and gave them clean chit later and removed their names from the FIR.
Pehlu Khan
Pehlu Khan, video screenshot
According to IndiaSpend factchecker, since 2014, there have a total of 124 incidents of violence where cow-vigilantes were involved in which out of 302 victims, 47 people were killed in the violence while 172 received serious injuries in the assault inflicted upon them by the cow vigilantes.
16-year-old Muslim boy thrashed in Kanpur for refusing to chant Jai Shri Ram
The incident occurred yesterday when Mohammad Taj, a resident of Barra, was returning home after offering namaz in Kidwai Nagar.
ADVERTISEMENT
Press Trust of India
Press Trust of India
Kanpur
June 29, 2019UPDATED: June 29, 2019 21:25 IST
Three or four unidentified motorcyclists stopped the minor boy a few hundred metres from his house for overtaking them and objected to him wearing the skull cap. (Photo: Representational image)
HIGHLIGHTS
A minor Muslim boy was thrashed by unidentified men in Kanpur
The boy was beaten by the group for wearing skull cap and not chanting Jai Shri Ram
An FIR has been registered in the case, said a police officer
A16-year-old Muslim boy was allegedly beaten by unidentified men here for wearing a traditional skull cap and refusing to chant "Jai Shri Ram", police said today.
The incident occurred yesterday when Mohammad Taj, a resident of Barra, was returning home after offering namaz in Kidwai Nagar.
Three or four unidentified motorcyclists stopped Taj a few hundred metres from his house for overtaking them and objected to him wearing the skull cap, Station House Officer (Barra) Satish Kumar Singh said.
Mr. Singh said the attackers asked the teenager to chant "Jai Shri Ram", and kicked and punched him badly after he refused to do so.
"They removed my cap, pinned me down and beat me black and blue while asking me to chant 'Jai Shri Ram'," Taj told PTI. He alleged that the men told him that wearing the skull cap was "not allowed" in the area.
The teenager said he cried for help and begged a couple of shopkeepers to rescue him. Later, he added, some passersby rushed to help him, following which the attackers fled.
An FIR has been registered under the Indian Penal Code, including Section 153A (causing enmity between people of different religions), Mr. Singh said. A medical examination of the victim has been done and efforts are on to identify the accused, he added.
Read | TMC delegation will be welcomed with Jai Shri Ram chants in Bhatpara: BJP MP Arjun Singh
Also Read | Workers of BJP, TMC clash over Jai Shri Ram chants, one injured in accidental firing by police
Spate Of Lynchings Target Minorities, Especially Muslims, In India
August 19, 20195:04 AM ET
Heard on Morning Edition
LAUREN FRAYER
6-Minute Listen
Download
Transcript
Mobs in India are lynching minorities. Many accuse the Hindu nationalist government of failing to forcefully condemn the violence. Activists have launched a hate crimes hotline in 100 Indian cities.
NOEL KING, HOST:
In India over the past couple of months, there's been a series of violent attacks on minorities, especially Muslims. The attackers often accuse their victims of smuggling beef. Now, beef is illegal in many Indian states because cows are sacred to Hindus. Videos of these brutal beatings have gone viral on social media. But for the most part, the attackers are not being punished. NPR's Lauren Frayer went to northern India and brought back this story.
(SOUNDBITE OF COURTYARD GATE OPENING)
LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE: Mohamed Irshad perches on a plastic stool in the muddy courtyard of his small family farm north of New Delhi. Slowly, in fits and starts, he describes his father's murder two years ago.
MOHAMED IRSHAD: (Foreign language spoken).
FRAYER: The family, who are Muslims, had been to a cattle fair. They were driving home in a truck, carrying four cows they had purchased, when a dozen strangers on motorcycles forced them off the road.
IRSHAD: (Through interpreter) They pulled us out of the truck. They were yelling that they wanted to protect cows from us Muslims. I showed them the receipts for the cows we bought, but they tore them up and started beating us with hockey sticks. I suffered internal bleeding. My brother and I barely survived, and all of India saw what happened to our father.
FRAYER: All of India saw the fatal beating because the attackers themselves recorded video and posted it on social media.
(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO)
UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: (Yelling in foreign language).
FRAYER: In the video, attackers praise Hindu gods as they punch 55-year-old Pehlu Khan. His white tunic splattered with blood, the father of eight pleads for his life, calling his attackers brother.
(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO)
PEHLU KHAN: (Foreign language spoken).
UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: (Yelling in foreign language).
FRAYER: That video is how Khan's widow, Jaibuna, learned of her husband's death. She was at home waiting for him to return from the cattle fair.
JAIBUNA: (Through interpreter) A neighbor came and showed me the video but then felt bad and ran away. People were saying, don't show her, this is her family. Everyone was panicking, and I couldn't take it. I fainted.
FRAYER: Before he died, Khan described his attackers to police. Six men were arrested, but charges were later dropped, and instead, Khan himself was charged posthumously with cow smuggling. Police say he didn't have a permit to transport cows across state lines. Khan's two sons, who were with him that day, are awaiting trial and face up to five years in prison.
JAIBUNA: (Foreign language spoken).
FRAYER: "It's like they're trying to erase us," Khan's widow, Jaibuna, says, "erase all of my people." Since a Hindu nationalist party won power in India five years ago, lynchings of minorities have surged. Human Rights Watch counted at least 44 murders over three years. Hundreds more have been injured. There have been very few prosecutions and hardly any public outrage.
RANA AYYUB: How do you stay silent? How does a majority stay silent and witness something, unless you believe that what's happening to them is the right thing?
FRAYER: Author Rana Ayyub believes that India's Hindu majority tacitly supports not murder but discrimination against Muslims. The Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not denounced this violent strain of Hindu nationalism. It's fueling prejudices that date back to India's founding.
AYYUB: You know, there has been this friction between Hindus and Muslims since the partition of India. And many of them believe that Muslims should have gone to Pakistan, and if they stay here then they should stay as second-class citizens.
FRAYER: A slogan has become part of these lynchings, "Jai Shri Ram," which means, praise Lord Ram, one of the Hindu gods. It used to be a mere prayer. Now it's a murder cry. Mobs chant this while they beat their victims. But it's also used by politicians.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Foreign language spoken).
FRAYER: Just this summer, lawmakers from Modi's Hindu nationalist party taunted their Muslim colleagues with that slogan. There is a very small fledgling movement of Indians, both Muslim and Hindu, fighting this.
(SOUNDBITE OF FOOTSTEPS)
FRAYER: Up a dank stairway in a Mumbai events hall, activists have gathered for an anti-hate crimes convention.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTIVIST: It is the time now to join hands against these crimes.
FRAYER: They call for brotherly love while police guard the entrance. Some here have been labeled anti-national, their loyalty to India called into question. Social scientist Vishnu Poruthiyil compares the mood in India right now to the post-Civil War period in America when many white people looked on as black people were lynched.
VISHNU PORUTHIYIL: The similarities with the American lynchings of the late-19th century are striking. Because it is almost like a spectacle so people watch it. They video themselves, and they put it up on social media.
(SOUNDBITE OF METAL DOORS OPENING)
FRAYER: In donated office space in New Delhi, Jagisha Arora is fielding phone calls from victims.
(SOUNDBITE OF PHONE RINGING)
JAGISHA ARORA: Hello? (Foreign language spoken).
FRAYER: She works at a new hate crimes help line created by volunteers. They've gotten 15,000 phone calls since launching last month.
ARORA: One person called me and said, like, I am at police station right now. The police are refusing to launch a complaint, and they are threatening us.
FRAYER: Arora connects callers to free legal aid in a hundred different Indian cities. But she also gets a different type of call, from people who are angry that this help line even exists.
ARORA: And some people, like, complain on so, like, why are you, like, spreading this...
FRAYER: So people call the help line to complain, to accuse you?
ARORA: Yeah. Accuse me, like, the Muslims are bad.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: (Foreign language spoken).
FRAYER: Mohammad Hashim came face to face with people who think that. He's a long-distance truck driver and a Muslim. Last year, a mob of Hindus on motorbikes forced him off the road.
MOHAMMAD HASHIM: (Through interpreter) They drag me out of the truck, accuse me of transporting beef, and started beating me. I was actually transporting refrigerators. But I'm just the driver, and I'm not allowed to open the back of the truck. It was locked. They pulled on my beard and tried to force me to chant "Jai Shri Ram." I thought, this is it, I'm going to die.
FRAYER: He woke up in a hospital bed instead, with a broken leg and fractured vertebrae. He was bedridden for six months. But now Hashim has to get back on the road. He needs to provide for his five children.
HASHIM: (Through interpreter) My children say, don't worry about us, Daddy. We can stay poor. We'll eat less. We want you to be safe.
FRAYER: They're scared that next time their father might not come home. Lauren Frayer, NPR News, in Haryana, India.
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