A 23-yeay-old Muslim youth was beaten to death in Gujarat by a mob during the final match of a cricket tournament that took place in Chikhodara village in Anand district of Gujarat on June 22.
The deceased has been identified as Salman Vohra. The incident took place at around 11:30 pm when a group of people came to watch the cricket match. The group then got into an altercation with Salman for some reason and it took a violent turn as the group thrashed Salman with sticks and knives and allegedly beat him to death.
The incident was first reported by Quint where it also reported that apart from Salman, his two friends were also grievously injured. One of the deceased’s friends got around 17 stiches and the other one got 7 stiches.
Salman Vohra was a resident of Polson compound in Gujarat’s Anand and he worked in the garment business. During the match, there were already tension over the pro-Hindutva residents’ opposition to Muslim players performing well in the tournament. “When they were playing, a section of the crowd began shouting ‘Jai Shri Ram’,” Aasim Khedawala, an activist, told Quint. “The one who was drunk mistook another Muslim man, Suhail to be Salman [Vohra] and began attacking him. In order to save Suhail from these men, Salman jumped in and the mob surrounded him,” Quint report said.
Vohra’s wife is a few weeks pregnant. The police have so far arrested nine people in the case and further investigation is underway. The arrested suspects have been identified as Mehul Dinesh Parmar, Mahendra Ramesh Vaghela, Kiran Mafat Parmar, Ketan Mahendra Patel, Ratilala Raising Parmar, Akshay Narsinh Parmar, Mukesh Rajesh Parmar, Vijay Mangal Parmar, Vijay Chhagan Parmarand, Rakesh Babu Parmar and Ketan Bharat Parmar.
Mob lynchings against Muslims have increased in some parts of India from many months. According to the reports by Maktoob Media, this is the sixth such lynching since June 4.
