Goons Abuse, Slap Elderly Muslim Man On Train In Maharashtra (Photo sreengrab @zoo_bear)
As reports of anti-Muslim hate incidents become common under the present regime in India, yet another incident has been documented from a village in Jalgaon District in Maharashtra. The incident occurred when an elderly Muslim man, Haji Ashraf Munyar, was travelling to Kalyan on a train to meet his daughter.
A video shared by the Alt News co-founder and fact-checker Muhammed Zubair shows miscreants sitting opposite him abusing and beating him up badly while alleging him of carrying beef.
Haji Ashraf Munyar from a village in Jalgaon District travelling in a train to Kalyan to meet his daughter was abused and badly beaten up by goons in a train near Igatpuri alleging him of carrying beef. pic.twitter.com/uOr3vlqBqB
— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) August 30, 2024
Author and academician Apoorvanand, sharing the video, opined such incidents have made the lives of Muslims “very, very uncertain,” adding that the members of the community do not know where and when they would be encountered by the goons. “Vileness has been injected into Hindu society so successfully that it looks as if the Hindus were always like this,” Apoorvanand wrote on his social media platform X.
Reports suggest that since the BJP came to power in 2014, hate crimes against minorities have increased in the country. According to an India Hate Lab report, the country documented 668 hate speech incidents targeting Muslims in 2023. Notably, around 75% of the events (498) took place in BJP-ruled States and Union Territories (administered by the BJP-led Central government).
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The cases of hate incidents are associated with conspiracy theories, calls for violence against Muslims by politicians, love jihad, beef consumption allegations, land jihad, halal jihad, and population jihad, among others. The criminalization of eating, doing business, loving, and praying has also made Muslims victims of state intimidation. Even after the BJP under Prime Minister Narendra Modi faced an electoral setback following his series of hate speeches against Muslims during poll campaigns, the trend seems to continue unabated.
