The body of Mohammad Shalik in hospital on Thursday. Police said three persons have been arrested for the assault.(Photo credit: Hindustan Times)
Even as a 20-year-old Muslim, Mohammed Shalik was beaten to death in BJP-ruled Jharkhand on Wednesday for being in love with a Hindu woman, a right wing group of businessmen from Jammu, affiliated to the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) has threatened to kill Rohingya Muslim refugees in the state unless the government took immediate steps to deport them, reports the Times of India.
The Jammu Chamber of Commerce and Industries (CCI) accuses the Rohingya and Bangladeshi Muslims of criminal activities including drug trafficking.
“The state and Centre should book Rohingyas and Bangladeshi nationals under the Public Safety Act and deport them in a month,” CCI Jammu president, Rakesh Gupta said at a press conference. Should the government fail to enact the Chamber he warned “shall have no option but to launch an ‘identify and kill movement’ against such criminals. Gupta added the Chamber is committed to protect the interests of its people as part of its corporate social responsibility”.
According to the Times of India report there are around 10,000 Muslim refugees, most of them settled in the predominantly Hindu Jammu region. The latest threat to mob violence from Jammu businessmen comes close on the heels of the lynching last week of a Muslim dairy farmer, 55-year-old Pehlu Khan, in Rajasthan and the thrashing to death of a 20-year-old Mohammed Shalik in a Jharkhand village on Wednesday for having an affair with a Hindu woman.
According to several news reports, villagers from Soso village in Gumla district, tied a 20-year-old Muslim, Mohammed Shalik, to a tree and thrashed him for several hours for being in love with a Hindu woman. The woman had reportedly asked Shalik to meet her at the Ram Navmi procession in Gumla on Wednesday. It was then that villagers from her village recognised and attacked Shalik. He succumbed to his injuries on Thursday.
Activists have been protesting against the decision of Jharkhand's BJP government for setting up anti-Romeo squads and shutting down slaughter houses and meat shops a la Uttar Pradesh. Police said they have arrested three persons for the killing and lodged an FIR against other unnamed persons.
On Friday, the Supreme Court issued notice to six states, including Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh and also the Centre seeking a response on why cow vigilantes should not be banned.