Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh police have arrested seven men, five of them minors, for allegedly lynching a 53-year-old Muslim man in a dispute over a religious place of worship, at Parsoi village in Uttar Pradesh’s Sonebhadra district.
The seven are part of 15 men, 11 of them minors, whom the police had booked for allegedly murdering Mohammad Anwar, 53, Wednesday night. The men allegedly tied a scarf around Anwar’s mouth and beat him to death with wooden sticks and an axe.
“Initially, 19 people had been named in the FIR and two unknown persons had been made accused. Investigations, however, revealed the role of 15 people, of whom 11 are minors between 13 and 15 years of age,” said Inspector Vijay Pratap Singh, the investigating officer in the case. “A 19-year-old man, Akshay, is the one who hit Anwar on the head with an axe that proved fatal. He is absconding.”
Police said that the dispute was over a raised platform (dais), on which Muslims in the village commemorated Muharram every year. Police accuse the local government school teacher of instigating the mob against Anwar.
Sonbhadra SP Salmantaj Patil told The Print that police are particularly probing the role of Ravindra Kharwar, the local teacher who hails from Ballia.
Kharwar allegedly joined the village junior high school only six months ago and began running shakhas next to the Muharram dais. He then allegedly began instigating the children to destroy the dais.
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Run-ins began in October: Victim’s son
According to Anwar’s son, Mohammad Hassan Anwar Sheikh, since October last year, after Kharwar joined the school, there have been three incidents that nearly led to clashes between the two communities over the Muharram dais.
“The dais has been in place for 10-15 years and we have never had any trouble till six months ago. This is the place where we would keep taziya during Muharram,” Sheikh said. “Police were called and a compromise was reached between the two communities. However, this did not deter Kharwar who continued to instigate locals against our community, calling us outsiders and stating that we had no right to live in the area.”
Sonebhadra police confirmed that as recently as February, the dais had been vandalised. “Last month, the chabutara (dais) had been damaged and the administration met the two communities and a compromise was reached,” SP Patil said. “The structure is built on government land and one of the accused was setting up a private school nearby.”
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Anwar killed during walk
Sheikh said that his father had gone out for a walk after dinner Wednesday night when the incident took place. “He saw these men destroying the dais and objected to it. He was beaten so mercilessly that he died at the spot,” he said.
His entire family – mother, sister and six brothers – now live with him at Obra city where he works as a carpenter. They have not returned to the village since the incident.
“My father had moved to Parsoi from his ancestral village in Ghazipur in 1950. There are about 2,000 households in Parsoi village area and just three are Muslim households but we never faced any discrimination,” Sheikh said. “We used to live in complete harmony there till this teacher arrived.”
“Many of the accused are people who used to eat with us and we used to watch TV together. Since my father’s murder, no one from the village has reached out to us,” Sheikh said. “If the guilty are not brought to book, who will ensure our safety? Today my father has been killed and tomorrow, it could be all of us.”