Six young boys, all of whom happened to be Muslim, students of Std IX at the Five Star English School, were brutally beaten up in Manipur on March 25 as they tried to watch Holi celebrations at the Thabal Chongba Ground on Thabal Chongba( Holi Day), March 25.
Speaking to Sabrangindia, the Director General of Police (DGP), Manipur , L.M. Khaute admitted that such an incident had taken place because ‘local people suspected they had come there for anti-social activities.’ The police have “registered an FIR though no accused have been named, a process that will be completed only after investigations are over,” said the DGP. According to local reports, at about 7:30 pm on the evening of March 25, six young boys, Md. Altaf Hussain, Iqbal Hussain, Shoib Akhter, Shazad Aalam, Thani Alam and Farid Khan were brutally beaten up, allegedly with sharp weapons.
One of the boys Shazad Aalam, who escaped from the scene, informed his brother about the attack. According to the accounts from the victims reported, when the boys tried to approach the Thabal Chongba Ground, they were stopped abruptly and asked where they were going. When they said they had come to watch the Thabal Chongba (Holi celebrations), they were subjected to brutal beating while local people remained silent spectators as nobody came forward to rescue the boys who were left critically injured.
Initially when the attack began, Farid along with Thani tried to save their three accomplices, they were also attacked by the culprits who, it is claimed also wanted to set them on fire. Fortunately, some responsible persons including a senior member of the local Zilla Parisad tried to reach the spot but the culprits stopped them, allegedly using weapons. However, it was the pradhan of Iramsiphai who later reported the incident to the Wangoi police who rescued the boys.
While the victims who have suffered the assault have named Sanasam Thoi Singh, Mamang Leikai, Sorokhaibam Romen Singh, S.Modhu Singh, Gunamani Singh (Thang saba), the police states that they will name the accused in the FIR only after investigations have been completed.
Initially, reports suggested that the justification for the attack was that the victims had stolen a bike; however it transpired that the bike belonged to Farid Khan. According to the victims, the police have seized the bike from them and have kept it in their custody. Three of the victims are being treating in Rahman hospital in Assam. The perception that the young boys had come ‘for anti social activities’ is being investigated by the police.
Background
Manipur has joined the rest of the country in horrific acts of lynching. Barely five months ago, on November 5, 2015, The Times of India had reported that how a body of the headmaster was found at Keirao Makating village in Manipur's Imphal East district early on Monday, the police said.Fifty five years old Md Hasmad Ali's body was found five km away from his house. A mob had beaten him to death after he was seen with a calf that was missing from the shed of one of the villagers.
Ali described as a kind hearted teacher lost his life to the lynch mob.
"Ali, a kind-hearted and honest teacher, was killed after being accused of a crime he could not have committed. The police know who his assailants are but are not taking action. We will not take his body from JNIMS for burial until justice is done," Md Rajauddin, convenor of a joint action committee against Ali's killing, had been quoted as saying to the Hindustan Times.
The gory incident had been also commented upon in the international media Naba Kanta, a senior police officer, had then told told the New York Times: "What is happening here is completely wrong – people taking the law into their hands. We face the problem of mob justice in this area, and we are trying to do our best to contain it."
The series of countrywide lynchings have come after te Modi regime’s push to pass laws banning beef in a number of states, causing uproar among other religious groups.
Several cases of violence have come to light involving Hindu mobs targeting people they suspect could be harming cows. One of the most high-profile cases involved the lynching of a Muslim man in Dadri on the outskirts of capital city New Delhi. Mohammad Akhlaq, 50, was beaten to death by a suspected Hindu mob on September 28, 2015 for storing and eating beef. However, a forensic test later revealed that the meat stored in his home was goat meat.
Thereafter, a Muslim man was killed by another suspected Hindu mob who accused him of smuggling cattle for slaughter. The incident took place in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh on October 14, just a few weeks after a Hindu mob threw a home-made bomb at a truck suspected of carrying beef in the Kashmir Valley.