India religious tensions on the boil after Hindu killed
UDAIPUR, India — Hundreds of police officers were deployed in the western city of Udaipur on Wednesday after the murder of a Hindu tailor allegedly by two Muslims in revenge for inflammatory comments about Islam by a ruling party member.
The attack, in which the men seemingly tried to behead their victim, was captured on video that went viral and has gripped a country with a long history of communal violence.
The video showed Kanhaiya Lal being attacked in his shop, with further footage showing the two accused purportedly brandishing large knives and threatening to kill Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
They then justified their murder as a response to Lal’s alleged support of comments about the Prophet Muhammad by a spokeswoman for Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, remarks that have triggered protests across parts of the Islamic world in recent weeks.
Hundreds gathered outside Lal’s house ahead of his funeral on
Wednesday, a day after several hundred protested and chanted Hindu slogans in response to the killing.
People on motorcycles and cars waved saffron flags, the color of the Hindu faith, and shouted slogans demanding the death penalty for the accused.
The two young men were arrested on Tuesday as they attempted to flee Udaipur by motorbike, news reports said.
The National Investigation Agency said the men circulated the video “in order to trigger panic and strike terror among the masses across the country”.
To prevent potential violence, authorities deployed 600 extra police personnel and put the city of around 450,000 people under curfew, cutting mobile internet access there and in other parts of Rajasthan state.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot appealed to people not to share the video.
“The involvement of any organization and international links will be thoroughly investigated,” Indian
Home Minister Amit Shah tweeted.
Indian Muslim organizations also condemned the killing.
The remarks about the Prophet by BJP spokeswoman Nupur Sharma during a TV debate in late May sparked protests that turned violent in some parts of India and demonstrations across the Islamic world.
She was sacked by the party after her comments, which prompted the governments of nearly 20 countries to summon their Indian envoys to express their displeasure.
Lal’s wife told broadcaster NDTV that her husband was arrested on June 10 over a social media post supporting Sharma and released on bail a day later.
Five days later, the father of two said he had received death threats but returned to work in his shop on Tuesday.
The purported video of the killing, which police have not yet confirmed as genuine, showed Lal measuring one of the men for new clothes before he and his accomplice attacked him.
India has seen sporadic sectarian violence between majority Hindus and Muslims, who make up around 14 percent of the 1.4 billion population.
Religious riots in the capital New Delhi left 53 people dead in 2020, while another 62 were killed in the nearby city of Muzaffarnagar in 2013.
In 2002, at least 1,000 were killed in violence in Gujarat, at the time led by then state premier Modi. Most of the victims were Muslims.
Rajasthan also saw riots earlier this year, when almost 100 people were arrested after police fired tear gas to stop fighting and stone pelting.
Modi’s party has been accused of marginalizing the Muslim community and sowing divisions with Hindus since coming to power in 2014.
The row over Sharma’s comments followed anger across the Muslim world in 2020 after France’s president defended the right of a satirical magazine to publish caricatures of the Prophet.