While the liberal-secular coterie accuses Hindutva “goons” of attacks on Muslims, the reality is quite different. Despite being the dominant demography in India, where Muslims form the second-largest religious group, Hindus often become victims of Islamic terror and violence.
On Tuesday, January 25, a Hindu youth named Kishan Boliya was brutally murdered by assailants on bicycles in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad district. Allegedly, the youth had shared an image of Islam’s prophet Mohammed on social media – a seemingly harmless act that is known to trigger many Muslims worldwide, and often results in the beheading or killing of the person responsible for the act, or others who had nothing to do with it. Some Muslims justify the killing because the act was “blasphemous.”
Kishan’s post whipped up a huge controversy, after which he did not step out of his house for several days. According to witnesses, two bikers were following Kishan as he was returning home on his bike on the day of his murder. They fired at him twice. Though they missed the first shot, they took him down with the second. Kishan died on the spot. Police have initiated an investigation, but the locals are not satisfied with it.
Kishan’s family initially refused his mortal remains; later, prominent members of various Hindu organizations intervened, spoke to the police, and assured proper investigation on the case. The family then accepted the mortal remains and performed Kishan’s last rites on Wednesday, January 26. Gujarat Police have arrested a few suspects, but their identities have not been disclosed.
This cold-blooded killing in broad daylight brings back memories of the 2019 Kamlesh Tiwari murder case, in which a Hindu leader was slaughtered by Muslims for making “objectionable” remarks about their prophet.
Apart from murders for alleged blasphemy, the second most rapidly rising social evil witnessed in this geography is Grooming Jihad. A 31-year-old private bus conductor, Afzal, was arrested by the police last week on charges of grooming and raping a 13-year-old girl on the afternoon of January 15. Afzal had reportedly lured the 8th-grader inside the bus and sexually assaulted her with the help of two of his accomplices.
Afzal, who is a married man with a child, groomed the minor, a daily commuter in the bus, by pretending to be in love with her. On the day of the crime, he asked her to meet him at the bus stand.
Afzal and his accomplices cancelled the trip, telling the bus owner that there weren’t enough commuters. Now that they had the bus to themselves, they brought down the window shutters and exited; the victim was left in the bus with Afzal, who molested her.
Deputy Superintendent of Police Shaju Jose, who received a tipoff about the crime, sent a team of officials to the site and caught the accused and his victim inside the bus. By the time the police reached the spot, Afzal had already raped the girl twice and was forcing unnatural sex on her. This, apparently, isn’t the first time; Afzal has raped a minor earlier as well.
In another incident of grooming jihad, Mohammad Isaaq, a Muslim man from Nepal, initiated a relationship with a Hindu Nepalese woman named Shiva Vishwakarma. Shiva was working with him as a typist in Nepal. He convinced her to marry him, concealing the fact that he was still married to his first wife. Shiva converted to Islam after the Islamic wedding ceremony and was given a new name, Sofia. Mohammad Isaaq then migrated to India with Shiva and procured counterfeit identification cards for both. They were living in Uttar Pradesh as Mohammad Yasin and Zara Khan; Mohammad took up a job as a supplier of Ayurvedic medicines.
A few days ago, Mohammad was joined by his first wife, Shahar Bano, in India. On Thursday, January 20, Shiva’s brother from Nepal approached local police, suspecting that something untoward had happened to his sister, as she was not answering his calls. The police reached the house Shiva had been sharing with her husband and his first wife, and recovered her body wrapped in a mattress; medical reports reveal that she had been strangled to death.
Mohammad Issac, aka Mohammad Yasin, had fled; he was about to cross the border and enter Nepal when Uttar Pradesh police apprehended him. Mohammad and Shahar Bano have been arrested and accused of Shiva’s murder; several other charges under the Indian Penal Code have also been levied on the couple. The deceased is survived by a three-year-old daughter, who is in state custody.
Such cases have become so common on the Indian subcontinent that people have grown immune to such news. Unfortunately, the government is still struggling to recognize Grooming Jihad or Love Jihad as an established criminal practice and formulate laws against it.