By Team Clarion
NEW DELHI — Muslim small traders and workers continue to face targeted campaigns of economic boycott in states ruled by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). After meat sellers, fruit and vegetable vendors, street hawkers, gym trainers, electricians, delivery workers, tailors and drivers, the latest victims are Muslim barbers running unisex salons.
Fresh protests erupted in Rishikesh district of Uttarakhand where Hindu groups alleged that Muslim barbers use unisex salons to lure Hindu women under the false narrative of ‘love jihad’.
On Thursday, Hindu organisations gathered outside a new salon on Tilak Road before its official opening. Slogans were raised, and the owner was forced to shut down the business and leave the premises. Hindu groups claimed such salons were “dens of immoral activities”.
Raghvendra Bhatanagar, the state president of Hindu Shakti Sangathan, said: “Boys from one particular community take the phone numbers of Hindu customers of these salons. They brainwash them, trap them with jihadi talk, and run away with them. This is a danger to our daughters and daughters-in-law.”
He alleged that most workers in these salons were Muslim men, while Hindu girls were employed as assistants: “Why don’t they employ women from their own families? Why are only our daughters being dragged into this?”
Bhatanagar further threatened an agitation if unisex salons continued operating: “Several such cases have happened in Uttarakhand. If the salons are not shut down despite warnings, we will be forced to launch a massive movement on the streets.”
This story was originally published in clarionindia.net. Read the full story here.