Nearly 20-25 members belonging to right-wing groups have allegedly pelted stones and attacked houses of Muslims in Koppal district’s Gangavathi on Monday night.
Muslims have alleged that for the past four days stones were pelted at their houses by unidentified persons. However, yesterday they have attacked their houses and also tried to attack women.
Due to the attack by the right-wing people, four people have been hospitalized. The victims have been identified as Zakeer, Moula Hussain, Honor Saab.
About one month, one person from the Muslim community had allegedly shared a story on his social media, which a Dalit man had uploaded. The status was offensive regarding the Hindu Gods. Following this, the right-wing had created a ruckus over this and the police arrested a few people belonging to the Muslim community. However, they were released a few days ago.
The one-month-old incident has allegedly resulted in the Hindutva groups, attacking the homes of all the Muslims in Gangavathi’s Naganehalli too. There are about 25 to 30 Muslim houses in the village.
Speaking to THG, one of the victims Moula Hussain said, “Ever since I got the bail and came here, they’ve been attacking us. They’re just trying to find reasons to fight with us. Every time they were before us and tried to incite us. But we ignored and went to our homes. We didn’t want to fight. Later they started pelting stones at our homes. All our houses have been damaged, including vehicles.”
“Whenever there was power cut they came and attacked our homes and ran away. But yesterday, we confronted them and my grandfather said all the conflict which happened last month has been solved. Why are you coming again and troubling us? To which they replied, Muslims should not stay in this village, only Hindus will stay,” he added.
Hussain alleged that for every house 20-30 men are coming and attacking. “They’re not even sparing women,” he said.
Explaining the incident, which occurred last month he said, “There was a guy named Ashok who had put up a status which had denied Hindu God’s and said to follow only BR Ambedkar’s constitution. That guy also instigated others to share his story. So, when a boy named Abdul shared that status, a huge ruckus was created. They left Ashok and caught only Abdul.”
On January 1, both groups had engaged in a fight with each other during a meet regarding the issue. Many of them were even hospitalized for days. “But now we thought the matter is cooled down, they’ve started again,” the victim said.
The police have taken the statements of the victim. Meanwhile, THG was unable to reach the police officials.
