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.

The post Mob Rule in Manipur Yet Again: Six Muslim boys brutally battered appeared first on SabrangIndia.

So it does not quite matter if Mohan Bhagwat, RSS supremo — the man behind the Delhi throne leading the machine of the RSS which is the street army of the present regime – magnanimously as it were declares that ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ should not be coercively elicited. The repeated utterances of members of parliament, ministers and functionaries of the RSS that give sanction to exclusivist ‘nationalisms’ are signal enough for their cadres.

The latest such manifestation was Delhi. An 18-year-old madrasa student’s arm was broken, and two of his classmates injured after a group of young men allegedly assaulted them for not saying ‘Jai Mata Ki’. The Indian Express reports that the Delhi Police on March 30 arrested five persons, all in their 20s, in connection with an alleged assault on three madrasa students in Begumpur. On March 26, an 18-year-old madrasa student’s arm was broken, and two of his classmates injured after a group of young men allegedly assaulted them for not saying ‘Jai Mata Ki’.

According to Dilkash, he and his friends, Ajmal and Naeem, were walking through a park in the area when they were assaulted. “My friends and I had gone to Bans Wala park, some 300 metres from the madrasa, when we were attacked by a group of young men. They spotted us because we were wearing caps and asked us to say Jai Mata Ki,” he told The Indian Express.

Latehar Jharkand

According to Dilkash, one of the assailants hit Ajmal after they “refused to chant Jai Mata Ki. “When I intervened, they started beating me as well,” said Dilkash, adding that Naeem was also roughed up. Dilkash, Ajmal and Naeem are from Bihar’s Purnia district and came to Delhi last year to study at the Faiz-ul-uloom Ghausia madrasa in Ramesh Enclave’s Mohammadi Masjid. The trio said they managed to escape after a few minutes and flee towards the madrasa. “All are in their early 20s and are the residents of the same area,” SCP Vikramjit Singh is reported to have said.

Meanwhile, while many reports in the media reported Bhagwat’s statement as interpreted to mean that there should  be no coercion on the utterance of ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’, another report in the Hindi media suggested that Bhagwat has visions of the whole world uttering, reverentially the slogan, ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ “Puri Duniyase ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ Bulwana Chahte hai Sangh Pramukh Mohan Bhagwat” The report dated March 27 says that, “आरएसएस के प्रमुख मोहन भागवत ने रविवार (27 मार्च) को कहा कि संगठन चाहता है कि देश शोषण मुक्त और आत्म सम्मान से पूर्ण बने और पूरी दुनिया भारत को सलाम करे।

फ्रेंड्स ऑफ ट्रायबल सोसायटी के सह संस्थापक दिवंगत मदन लाल अग्रवाल के जीवन पर लिखी गई एक किताब के विमोचन के अवसर पर भागवत ने कहा, ‘‘हम चाहते हैं कि पूरी दुनिया ‘भारत माता की जय’ बोले। हम भारत को समृद्ध, शोषण से मुक्त और आत्मसम्मान से भरपूर बनाना चाहते हैं। इसके लिए हमें अपनी जिंदगी में भारत को जीना होगा।’’

राष्ट्रीय स्वयंसेवक संघ के प्रमुख ने कहा कि बंटवारे के बाद पाकिस्तान ने ‘भारत’ के नाम पर दावा नहीं किया क्योंकि वह उन गुणों को स्वीकार नहीं कर सकता जो भारत में है। उन्होंने कहा कि वेद, ‘देव भाषा’, ‘आदि भाषा’ और संस्कृत व्याकरण की रचना भी पाकिस्तान के क्षेत्र में हुई।

भागवत ने कहा, ‘‘लेकिन उन्होंने (पाकिस्तान) अपना नाम अपनाया और ‘भारत’ नाम को छोड़ दिया क्योंकि वे वो गुण स्वीकार नहीं कर सकते जो भारत में हैं।’’ रामायण का जिक्र करते हुए भागवत ने कहा, ‘‘हम कहते हैं कि यह काफी प्राचीन है लेकिन यह इतिहास है।’’
हल्के फुल्के अंदाज में भागवत ने कहा कि वह भाग्यशाली हैं कि आरएसएस का नेतृत्व कर रहे हैं। उन्होंने कहा, ‘‘मुझे नहीं मालूम कि चुनाव होने पर क्या होगा। लेकिन यहां नियुक्ति हुई है। मैं भाग्यशाली हूं।’’

Which report may we hold the Sangh to? Or should we, as citizens owing allegiance to the Indian Constitution also ask, who the Sangh is –the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to actually dictate or not what should be the guiding principles by whicht this country and its people function?

References:
1. 18-year-old Madrasa student’s arm broken for not saying “Jai Mata Ki”

2, Boy beaten up over refusal to chant slogan in Delhi  

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