Days after Modi’s U.S. visit Hindu mob lynches 2 Muslim youth in India
NEW DELHI, India: Two Muslim youths were reportedly lynched by a Hindu mob for carrying meat in their car in the western Indian state of Maharashtra.
One of the two, 25-year-old Afan Abdul Majeed Ansari, succumbed to his injuries in hospital.
The other, Ghulam Hussain Qureshi, remains in critical condition.
According to local media reports, the incident occurred in Nasik district on Saturday.
A Hindu mob intercepted a car on the highway and dragged the youth out after finding meat in the back seat.
Witnesses reported that they were beaten with iron rods and sticks.
Both belonged to a family of meat traders and were on their way to their store to sell meat. Police have opened a case against 11 perpetrators.
In another incident in the Indian-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir, Indian army personnel forced people in a mosque to chant Hindu Jai Shree Ram slogans.
In a tweet, former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti claimed the soldiers had entered a mosque in a village in the southern district of Pulwama.
According to India’s Express newspaper, the incident occurred in the early hours of Saturday when the Islamic call to prayer Azan was being recited.
Halfway through, they forced the people and the Azan caller to shout the Hindu slogan Jai Shree Ram (Long Live Lord Ram).
Mufti and two other former chief ministers, Omar Abdullah, and Ghulam Nabi Azad, have condemned the incident and called for a proper investigation.
The incidents occurred days after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi defended Indian democracy and the treatment of minorities in the U.S.
Meanwhile, India has reacted sharply to former U.S. President Barack Obama’s statement on minority rights in the country.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said Obama’s remarks were surprising as he himself had bombed six Islamic countries during his tenure.
In an interview with CNN on Thursday, Obama reportedly said that if India did not protect the rights of “ethnic minorities,” there was a strong possibility that the country would eventually fall apart.
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