Brutal attacks on Muslims in India have become routine in the country. During the last few days, at least six mosques and over a dozen houses and shops belonging to Muslims were burnt in the BJP-led Tripura state.
Pakistan strongly condemned the brutal act against Muslims by radical Hindutva mobs in the northern state of Tripura in India. The concern is becoming more and more unsafe for Muslims after recent violent attacks?
Tripura Violence
More than 10 incidents of religious violence have been reported from the North Tripura district in the past four days. Tripura is encircled on three sides by Bangladesh and connected by a thin corridor to the neighbouring state of Assam.
In Tripura, six mosques and over a dozen houses and shops belonging to Muslims were burnt. The attacks were reportedly carried out by Hindutva groups RSS, VHP, and Bajrang Dal across the state during protests in retaliation to violence in Bangladesh.
The mosques in Krishnagar, Dharmanagar, Panisagar, Chandrapur were also vandalised by saffron-wearing youths on Friday night, according to Indian media. The participants of a rally brought out by VHP broke window glasses and CCTV cameras of Krishnagar Jamia Masjid. A mosque in Panisagar in the North Tripura district was burnt by a Hindu violent mob.
In Kailashahar, a locality near Tripura’s capital city Agartala, a mob surrounding the mosque shouted “Jai Shri Ram” and placed a saffron flag. The attack on a Muslim lawyer’s house in Dharmanagar in North Tripura district was widely condemned by the Muslim groups in the state.
In the same locality, Hindu groups placed a saffron flag in front of a house belonging to Abdul Mannan, a prominent businessman in the region. The anti-Muslim attacks were well-planned, according to the local Muslim population.
Discrimination against Muslims
Nearly 46 percent of Muslims are self-employed in urban India, the largest as compared with any other community, according to data from the government’s National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), 2013.
The report adds that Muslims are the poorest among all religious groups in India and are concentrated in low-paying jobs in the informal sector.
There is more, in October, the beheaded body of a 25-year-old Muslim man was found on a railway track in Karnataka’s Belagavi district. He had been killed for being in an interfaith relationship.
In September, a Hindu woman was forced to slap her Muslim boyfriend across his face with her slippers in Meerut. Throughout August, Muslims across India were beaten, lynched, harassed, assaulted, publicly humiliated, forced to chant “Jai Shri Ram” and “Vande Mataram”, accused of ‘mehendi jihad’, ‘bangle jihad’, ‘narcotics jihad’, ‘economic jihad’ and even ‘juice jihad’.
All this has been documented, broadcast, and streamed by the mainstream media. But a more insidious form of Hindutva violence against Muslims also prevails in India – economic violence. This manifests in social media propaganda, complete with hashtags, trends and concocted videos, with one single aim: to boycott Muslim-owned and run businesses.
Discrimination in laws and policies
Since Modi’s BJP came to power in 2014, it has taken various legislative and other actions that have legitimized discrimination against religious minorities and enabled violent Hindu nationalism.
In 2019, the Indian government passed a citizenship law in December that discriminates against Muslims, making religion the basis for citizenship for the first time. In August 2019, the government also revoked the constitutional autonomy granted to the only Muslim-majority state, Jammu and Kashmir, and imposed restrictions in violation of people’s basic rights.
Since October 2018, Indian authorities have threatened to deport Rohingya Muslim refugees to Myanmar despite the risks to their lives and security, and have already repatriated over a dozen.
Muslims and unsafe India
Such actions violate domestic law and India’s obligations under international human rights law that prohibit discrimination based on race, ethnicity, or religion, and require the governments to provide residents with equal protection of the law.
The Indian government is also obligated to protect religious and other minority populations, however, the state seemed failed to protect the rights.
