'Khambat, a communally sensitive coastal town in Anand district was gripped in tension on February 24, at around 3 pm when a group of men gheraoed homes of Muslims in Akbarpura area, pelted stones, and burnt the homes down. “Akbarpura area is a slum area flanked by bus station on one side and railway tracks on another with only one outlet. The residents of the slums are all daily wage earners who come from Machimar or Kharwa community, belonging to both [Hindu and Muslim] the religions.
'As the details are emerging about the brutal killing of Akbar Khan, also known as Rakbar Khan, who was lynched to death at Lalawandi village in Alwar district of Rajasthan on July 20 night by self-proclaimed Gau Rakshaks (cow vigilantes) on the suspicion of cow smuggling, it appears that the police was complicit in the attack. The 28-year-old Khan, a resident of Kol village in Haryana, was in the custody of the cops for around three hours and 45 minutes before he was taken to a Community Health Centre, which is around six kilometre away from the spot, where he was declared brought dead.
'A local meat seller who was allegedly beaten up by the Uttar Pradesh police over allegations of cow slaughter has died in a Delhi hospital. Salim Qureshi alias Munna was picked up by two police constables on June 14 from his home and taken to a private wedding hall where they beat him up severely, his wife Farzana has alleged in a complaint lodged with the police. He died on Friday at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), she said...'
'The Gujarat high court on Friday acquitted former BJP minister Maya Kodnani in the Naroda Patiya massacre case. She had earlier been found guilty of conspiracy by a trial court in the massacre in which 97 Muslims were killed during the Gujarat riots...
'Yogi Adityanath’s legal fortunes may have turned for the worse. A potentially incriminating CD, which allegedly contains a hate speech by him and whose existence successive Uttar Pradesh governments have refused to acknowledge for a decade, has been found. It was discovered when two judges of the Allahabad High Court — no less — dramatically opened sealed court records in their courtroom two months ago. This CD allegedly contains a video of Adityanath making a hate speech against Muslims in Gorakhpur in January 2007.
'The independent probe, which has been endorsed by various human rights organisations, alleges that the Rajasthan police sought to diminish the enormity of the crime from the outset... An independent fact-finding report, released on Friday at the Press Club of India, points at glaring gaps in the investigation carried out by the Rajasthan police in the Pehlu Khan lynching case. Khan was killed by a group of so-called gau rakshaks in Alwar in April this year when he was returning home after purchasing cattle.
'A look at the sequence of events – compiled from news reports and residents' accounts – shows that the riots may well have been pre-planned... Images of arson and destroyed property flooded social media in the aftermath of communal clashes in Saharanpur last week.
'...The Muslims of Mohan Mundera, who belonged to the backward Ansari and Mansoori communities, had first heard about the Hindutva firebrand in 1999. That year, Adityanath had waded into a dispute in Pachrukhiya village in neighbouring Maharajganj district on behalf of local Hindus. A peepal tree, which stood on land that local Muslims claimed was part of a graveyard, had been cut down. In retaliation, a mob led by Adityanath stormed the village, trampled over the graves, and planted two dozen peepal trees.
'Cow vigilantism has reared its ugly head ever since Narendra Modi came to power in May 2014. From Mohammad Akhlaq in Dadri to Majloom Ansari and Imtiyaz Khan in Latehar and most recently, Pehlu Khan in Alwar – several people have been killed by vigilantes in the name of cow protection. Though most of the victims have been Muslims, Dalits have also paid the price. The flogging of Dalit men in Una, Gujarat last year was also done in the name of cow protection. Cow vigilantes haven't even spared their own ideological cousins.
'Police have arrested five suspects in the hanging to death of two Muslims herding cattle in India, in an incident that led to violent protests sparked an outbreak of violence in the eastern state of Jharkhand amid reports the attackers were Hindu vigilantes... The bodies of the two cattle traders were found hanging from a tree in Jharkhand’s Latehar district on Friday, stoking violence that injured six policemen, the Hindustan Times reported on Saturday.
