Dehradun: After a Muslim youth brutally beaten up by the frenzied mob for hanging out with a Hindu minor girl at a hotel, Muslims traders at Ghansali town in Uttarakhand’s Tehri Garhwal district have closed their shops fearing the mobs.
The frenzied mob of nearly 250 people has brutally beaten up an 18-year-old Azad Alvi on Monday for hanging around with a Hindu girl in Ghansali Market, HT reported.
The mob paraded the youth with a garland made of shoes around his neck after beating him up before he was rescued by policemen and took him to PS.
The frenzied mob also vandalized 3 shops of Muslim traders in the market, according to police reports while some Hindu traders also asked ‘outsider’ Muslim shop owners to leave the market.
“We are scared; we never expected such an incident in the area, which happened for the first time. Don’t know if we would be able to carry out our business as usual,” says Zulfikar Mansuri who hails from Bijnour district of UP.
Zulfikar has been running a furniture shop in the Ghansali market for the last 13 years which is now ransacked by the mobs.
“I was informed about the incident by some of my fellow Hindu traders who always helped me. After yesterday’s incident, we are in fear as we have heard that some people have demanded our ouster from the area,” he said, adding that he is now asked to vacate the shop after this incident.
Another Muslim member Mr Israr Ahmed who hails from Bijnour has been successfully running a cloth shop in the same market for the past 23 years.
“We want the accused to be punished for what he has done. We are not with him. But we are feeling tensed after some people asked us to shut down our business,” says Ahmed.
Furious at what Muslim community is forced to go through he asks, “How can we shut our business which is our source of income? We have never indulged in any unlawful activities.”
As many as 30 shops are owned by Muslims traders from UP among 300 shops in the Ghansali Market.
The Ghansali town has 7,000 people with nearly 80 Muslims in the town.
Look at the horror these 30 Muslims are fearing now after the mob’s attack in the market.
Alvi who also hails from Bijnour runs a barber’s shop in the market. “Alvi has been booked for rape as the girl was a minor. Also, police have booked about 50 unidentified people for ransacking and damaging shops of Muslim traders,” said Kishan Tamta, station house officer of Ghansali police station.
Boldly threatening Muslim traders in the region, right-wing leader Singh Komain said: “We don’t want Muslims to come from outside and settle in our area,” and “ there are at least 80-90 Muslim individuals living here. Most of them are hair-dressers or vegetable sellers. Some of them, like Alvi, have been trying to trap innocent Hindu girls.”
He further added, “A few months ago, Alvi’s uncle was nabbed in a molestation case. We will not tolerate such incidents; we have warned landlords renting out their places to outsider Muslims.”
Reporting about the situation in the area Ghansali sub-divisional officer DR Chouhan said, “The situation is under control. Police force has been deployed. We have assured Muslim traders of security and asked them to open their shops without dear.”
Many communal tensions are reported to have grown over the past years in many areas.
In July last year, communal tensions prevailed in Satpuli town of Pauri Garhwal district after a Muslim boy allegedly posted an objectionable post of Kedarnath shrine on Facebook.
The same situation was witnessed in Mussoorie last year after a Kashmiri trader allegedly shared a Pakistani patriotic song on social media.
With this inhumanity that has suddenly conquered majority Hindu people and turned them into bloodthirsty people, there are few others who have set an amazing example of defending a human life irrespective of his religion.
Police constables Rakesh Laithwal and Praveen Saini bravely faced the mob at Ghansali to rescue Alvi. “When we reached the spot, we saw an angry mob of more than 250 people who were thrashing the youth and were thirsty for his blood,” Laithwal says.
“The mob would have killed him if we didn’t save him on time. I and Saini after sensing trouble for the youth, decided to create a ring with our arms by putting him in between. We took him on foot like that for about 600m by taking blows on ourselves.”
He continued saying that “As we were moving towards the police station with him, the mob ran behind us shouting like we were in a big fair in which people run behind some sort of entertainer. But we didn’t budge and saved the youth to bring him to police station.”
The Ghansali SHO Kishan Tamta who was amazed with the two constables bravery who brought the youth safely to the Police Station said: “The story would have been different had the two have not reached the spot on time. The youth, who was booked by police for rape, is fine and have not complained of any hidden or major injury.”