'Police thrashed her almost the whole night and told her she was “a Muslim who eats in India, gives birth in India but praises Pakistan”, social activist Sadaf Jafar said after she was released on bail on Tuesday. “Tum log khate India ki ho, bachche India me paida karte ho aur taarif Pakistan ki karte ho,” the Lucknow-based teacher quoted a policeman as telling her while thrashing and slapping her repeatedly. Sadaf was arrested on December 19 during the protests against the amended citizenship act although she had said she did not take part in any violence.
'Two men affiliated to Hindutva supremacist outfits are among the six who have been arrested in Patna for the murder of Amir Hanzla (18), who had participated in an anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) protest on December 21, 2019 called by the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RLD), where Hanzla was seen with a tricolor in his hand. Hanzla worked at a bag stitching unit in the Phulwari Sharif area and his body was found ten days later on December 31, 2019.
'On 20 December, a day after the Uttar Pradesh chief minister Adityanath vowed to “take revenge” against those who had destroyed property during the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, the state police stormed Muzaffarnagar. That day and night, Mehmood Nagar and Khalapar—both Muslim-majority neighbourhoods in the city—descended into violence, with a rampage by the UP police. According to residents, the police force used tear gas, lathi charges, and opened fire on the Muslim locals. Noor Mohammad, a young resident of Khalapar, was shot in the head and died.
'...On 23 December, I visited Nehtaur, met the two families whose relatives were killed, visited the place where the police claimed the protestors had pelted stones at them and spoke to several eyewitnesses who were present there at the time. The residents said there had been no protest. They told me that they had only stepped out of their homes to attend the Friday prayers.
'Both the toilet pan and television set are broken, food canisters lie upturned, the pipe of the cooking gas cylinder has been sliced into two. “Aag laga rahe the. They were setting the house on fire,” said a young woman who lives in the Naiza Sarai locality in Nehtaur, a town in Uttar Pradesh’s Bijnore district, 180 km west of Delhi. On Friday afternoon, the police fired tear gas shells and bullets in the neighbourhood soon after Muslim residents emerged from prayers at a mosque. The police claim the residents first threw stones at them, but the residents stoutly deny this.
'Significant damage to a Muslim area in the Muzaffarnagar town of Western Uttar Pradesh is visible in a video accessed by Scroll.in that was shot after violence on Friday in the wake of protests around the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens... Shot at around 6 pm on Friday, the video show burnt shops and a mosque on the Roorkee-Meerut Road. It also shows four cars of Congressman and former MP Saiduzzaman gutted by the mob. Saiduzzaman’s son Salman Sayeed blamed the police as well as people he associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh for the violence.
'...The rumour of a stone from a mosque damaging the arm of a Durga statue continued to circulate through the night, and the next morning thousands of people gathered for the Maa Kaali procession. They defied the district administration by insisting on taking the procession though prohibited routes passing through narrow lanes in areas where Muslim residents lived in large numbers, and by shouted frenzied poisonous slogans against Muslims. The crowd continued to swell, and many came armed with lathis, sticks, spears, iron pipes, axes and swords.
'When I read in the newspapers that the Alwar trial court had acquitted the cow vigilantes accused of lynching Pehlu Khan – which, to me, had appeared an open and shut case from the newspapers – I was curious to find out on what grounds it had done so. Having worked in the legal field where it is commonly believed that a judge who has written a perfect judgment is yet to be born, I did not expect it to be perfect. But most certainly, I expected to see from a senior judicial officer a judgment on a standard format supported with sound legal principles.
'Three months after the Tabrez Ansari lynching case, which shook the conscience of the nation, Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Jharkhand once again witnessed a case of mob lynching on Sunday, September 22. A differently-abled tribal man was killed and two others were seriously injured when a mob allegedly thrashed them on suspicion of slaughtering a cow, in Khunti district of Jharkhand, police confirmed on Monday.
'Communal clashes broke out at Jokaha of West Champaran following manoeuvred incitement by majoritarian antisocial elements. However, the arbitrary arrests, torture and indifference that followed the vicious cycle solely targeted minorities... NewsClick presents a ground report from the region. “As our procession entered the Mazar (mausoleum ground), stones began to be hurled at us …we didn’t know from where it was coming…the peaceful gathering turned into chaos…,” recalls Zumdin Miyan, 60, who has been booked for ‘rioting’ and similar offences.
