"About 400 Muslims of Atali village, who were attacked by a Hindu mob four days ago, continue to be stranded Friday in the compound of the Ballabgarh police station. Despite the sweltering heat and inadequate food and water, the displaced persons have refused to return to their homes, seeking the arrest of the attackers and compensation for their burnt houses. On the evening of May 25, a violent mob attacked the community with bricks, swords, and petrol bombs. The assailants broke into their homes and set about 20 houses on fire.
'A mob of 300 Jat men rampaged through a village in Ballabhgarh this week, attacking Muslims. The reason: they don't want a mosque in the village. Local elections are due in August... The normality of the evening was deceptive. A little before 6 pm on May 25, most residents of Atali village in Ballabhgarh, in Haryana's Faridabad district, were out tending to their cattle. A few were in their homes cooking dinner. Zahida Parveen had just settled down on the second storey of her home in preparation for the asar ki namaz. Suddenly, there was a loud noise.
"Justice eluded the survivors and family members of the Hashimpura massacre with the trial court acquitting all the accused Provincial Armed Constabulary personnel last week. It seems a similar fate awaits Maliana village, where 72 Muslims were killed and burnt allegedly by the PAC and a mob on May 23, 1987. Killings in Maliana, a small Muslim village on the outskirts of Meerut, happened just a day after the Hashimpura massacre.
"A night before May 22, 1987, when 42 young Muslim men from Hashimpura, a mohalla less than two kilometres away from Meerut city, were murdered in cold blood by men in uniform, another death was registered in the nearby Civil Lines police station. The death was due to a bullet injury, the shots allegedly fired by someone from Hashimpura. Prabhat Kaushik, 23, an RSS worker, died around 9.30 pm standing on the roof of the house of his aunt Shakuntala Kaushik, a feisty BJP leader of her time.
"Today, on 24th March 2015, the families of Mohalla Hashimpura whose men were shot dead; and the five survivors, of the worst custodial communal killings in independent India expressed their anguish, suffering and outrage at the judgment of the Delhi Trial Court that acquitted all the accused Policemen of the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC). 28 years later, they remembered every detail of that fateful day when about 50 men of Mohalla Hashimpura were abducted by a Unit of the 41st Battalion of PAC in a yellow coloured PAC truck by 19 members of this Unit.
"Six persons have been arrested in connection with the attack on a cathedral premises and a school in Jabalpur on Friday night allegedly by members of two extremist groups, Bajrang Dal and Dharam Sena... The arrested have been identified as Dharam Sena leader, Yogesh Agrawal and his associates, Nitin Rajak, Prateek Pyasi, Anurag Choukse, Abhishek Choukse and Sharad Rao.
'A group of activists of Dharma Sena and Bajrang Dal reportedly vandalised a church, a school premises and assaulted some members of the Christian community in Jabalapur on Friday night accusing them of carrying out a religious conversion programme. Speaking to The Hindu,Superindentent of Police, H.N.Mishra, who is investigating the case, said the miscreants have been identified with the help of CCTV camera footage and efforts were on to arrest them...'
'We strongly condemn the unprecedented communal violence at the end of January 2015, in Tuneri, Vellur and Kodanjeri villages, Nadapuram in Kozhikode, Kerala, in which more than a hundred Muslim families and homes were singled out, attacked, and crores worth of property destroyed. We are utterly horrified and outraged that violence of this extent has received scant attention from the media — electronic, print or even social.
'The BJP's riot-accused lawmaker in Uttar Pradesh, Suresh Rana, has been given Z category security by the Centre, which means he is now among the country's most protected politicians. Mr Rana was arrested on charges of allegedly making inflammatory speeches in the days before the riots in Muzaffarnagar in 2013 that left over 60 people dead. He is currently out on bail...'
In 2014, 147 cases including the death of at least two persons in 2014 killed for their Christian faith were recorded by Alliance Defending Freedom India and The Evangelical Fellowship of India along with other Human Rights and Civil Society groups. The vicious hate campaigns, physical violence, police complicity and State impunity contribute to the persecution of the Christian community in many states of India.
