#India – Gujarat police, VHP activists beat Muslims in lockup #WTFnews

Mumbai: Over two dozen Muslims who were detained for slaughtering “cow” during Eid al-Adha on October 16 and later charged for attacking police personnel in Sansrod village near Karjan some 40 kms from Bharuch were allegedly beaten mercilessly by Gujarat policemen. The policemen later allowed activists allegedly belonging to Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal to beat the Muslims who were under the police lockup.

“Over thirty Muslims who were arrested in last one week for slaughtering cow during Eid were mercilessly beaten by the Gujarat police. Not only this, the police also allowed the activists belonging to VHP and Bajrang Dal to beat them in police lock-up”, an activist and lawyer Altaf Husain of Ahmedabad said while talking to ummid.com on phone.

He said that it is beyond imagination how police allowed outsiders to beat someone who were under their custody, and demanded immediate action against those involved in this grave act.

Another activist Zahoor S. claimed to have photographs with marks on the bodies of the Muslims showing the brutality of the police and the alleged VHP and Bajrang Dal activists.

A Mumbai based Urdu daily had also published a report with photographs on Tuesday showing the police brutality against the Muslims, who were arrested by them.

According to Advocate Alatf Husain the police had raided Sansrod village, situated around 15 km from Karjan town, after receiving information that cows were being slaughtered inside the Muslim-dominated area. They detained four persons immediately, and also beat a Muslim girl who objected to the police arrest. This resulted in a brawl between the police and the locals.

“After the arrest of 04 persons on October 16, the police arrested 07 others next day and another 17 on Oct 18. They registered FIR against over 120 people for attacking the police”, he said.

SP (Vadodara Rural) Sandeep Singh however said that they found four persons engaged in slaughtering a cow and held them, upon which a group of villagers protested, surrounded the police team, and attacked them with swords and stones.

It is learnt that after the arrest and alleged beating by the police and VHP and Banjrang Dal activists, the Muslims in the village are living in a state of shock and fear.

“People are living under continuous fear as the police have arrested some people who were gathered for a funeral”, Altaf Husain said.

Interestingly, the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind Gujarat State (JUHGS) general secretary, Quiyum Haque’s letter, on Monday wrote to the police claiming that the cops have included names in the FIR on the basis of information from their informers.

In his letter sent to police he claimed that one of the accused Khurshid Tudi is in the United Kingdom and another, Latif Behra, is in South Africa.

“Also, two of the accused mentioned in the FIR – Hasan Ganja and Yakoob Zamindar- have already died. An accused Musa Ganja is 65-year-old and is suffering from asthama while Umarji Musa’s both eyes were recently operated upon”, he claimed.