Recently Thousands of Indians gathered in several cities to protest recent violent attacks across the country that target minority Muslims.
The protesters carrying placards saying “Not in my name,” decried the silence of the Hindu nationalist govt responding public lynchings and attacks on minimum a dozen Muslim men and boys since it took power in the year 2014.
Thousands of people, including the elderly and parents with young children, sang songs and lit candles, in New Delhi. And In Mumbai and several other cities, hundreds, with the inclusion of some Bollywood actors, gathered under umbrellas in rain.
Last Friday, four Muslims were attacked by 20 men on a train in the outskirts of New Delhi, fatally stabbing a teenager and injuring two others.
The Muslim men have been reported to say an argument over seats that turned into a brutal attack, with the mob accusing them of being “beef-eaters.”
Several members of the Hindu majority consider cows sacred and the slaughter of cows and beef eating is illegal across much of India.
Much of the recent violence has been reportedly focused on cows.
Muslims constitute about 14% of India’s 1.3 billion people, while Hindus comprise 80pc of Indian constitution.
Rights groups say govt officials with the inclusion of the prime minister, have been slow to powerfully condemn the attacks and police action against perpetrators has been inadequate.
On 1st of April, Pehlu Khan, a Muslim cattle trader, had been lynched by a mob in the western state of Rajasthan because he transported cattle he had bought at an animal fair back to his home state of Haryana.
In May, two Muslim men were murdered over allegations of cattle theft in India’s northeast.
Over the previous two years, some groups, who call themselves cow protectors, have become active in small towns and cities across India.
Even lower-caste Hindus who carry out the tasks they don’t like, such as skinning dead cattle have faced mob violence.
