(Jaipur) Hundreds of police were deployed to Udaipur, a city in western India, on Wednesday after the alleged bloody murder of a Hindu tailor by two Muslims in retaliation for controversial statements about Islam by a member of the ruling party.
Posted at 8:32
The murder was caught on camera and the footage quickly went viral on the internet, raising fears of inter-religious violence, as the country has a long and bloody history of it.
The video shows the attack on tailor Kanhaiya Lal in his shop, where the two suspected killers appear to be attempting to decapitate him. Then they brandish knives and threaten to kill Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
They then explain the murder by the victim’s support for recent statements about Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, of a spokesperson for the ruling Hindu nationalist party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the movement of Mr. Modi.
Hundreds of people gathered outside Kanhaiya Lal’s home on Wednesday for his funeral, then followed the hearse carrying his coffin through the city streets. The day before, several hundred demonstrators had already chanted Hindu slogans demanding the death penalty for the killers.
The two accused youths were arrested on Tuesday while attempting to flee Udaipur on a motorbike, according to local media.
To prevent possible inter-religious violence, 600 additional police officers have been deployed in the city of 450,000 inhabitants. Mobile internet has been cut in Udaipur, but also in other parts of the state of Rajasthan, whose authorities have issued a month-long ban on gatherings of more than three people.
“The two accused of the murder have been arrested and we will ensure that we have severe punishment and swift justice,” Rajasthan Prime Minister Ashok Gehlot said. He called on people not to share the video, as it “would serve the goals of the attackers to create discord in society”.
On social media, members of the BJP party described the killing as an attack on all Hindus, calling it “Islamic terrorism”.
Diplomatic Storm
Remarks by Nupur Sharma, a BJP spokeswoman, during a televised debate in late May, in which she criticized the relationship between Muhammad and his youngest wife, Aisha, sparked protests that turned violent in some parts of the country. India (at least two dead) and protests across the Muslim world.
Mme Sharma has since been expelled from the BJP. But his statements led to the summoning of Indian ambassadors to around 20 countries for explanations.
Kanhaiya Lal’s wife told NDTV that her husband was arrested on June 10 for supporting Mme Sharma on social media, then released on bail the next day.
Five days later, the father of two children said he had received death threats, but decided on Tuesday to return to work in his store, according to his wife.
The alleged murder video – police have yet to confirm its authenticity – shows Mr Lal taking the measurements of one of the two men, before the two attacked him.
Indian Interior Minister Amit Shah said the NIA, the anti-terrorism agency, was taking charge of the investigation.
Violence erupts sporadically between the Hindu majority and the Muslim minority (about 14% of the 1.4 billion Indians): 53 deaths in 2020 in New Delhi, 62 deaths in 2013 in the neighboring town of Muzaffarnagar…
In 2002, at least 1,000 people, most of them Muslims, were killed in the state of Gujarat (west), when Narendra Modi was its prime minister.
Since becoming prime minister of the entire country in 2014, his party has been accused of discriminating against Muslims and deepening divisions with Hindus.
A wave of anger had already crossed the Muslim world in 2020 when French President Emmanuel Macron defended the right of a satirical magazine to publish caricatures of Muhammad.
Islam, in its strict interpretation, prohibits any representation of the prophet.
In France, Professor Samuel Paty was beheaded in October 2020 near Paris by a young Chechen refugee, after showing the cartoons during a lesson on freedom of expression.