By Ashutosh Mishra
Bhubaneswar: A Muslim youth transporting cattle was allegedly forced to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and killed on the outskirts of Balasore town in what is the latest example of the increasing violence against minorities in Odisha.
Balasore, which is represented in the Lok Sabha by former Union minister and BJP stalwart Pratap Sarangi, remains a highly sensitive area from where incidents of targeted assault on members of minority communities have been reported in the recent past.
Early on Wednesday (January 14) morning, a Muslim youth named Sheikh Makandar Mohammad was driving a van loaded with cattle and was chased by a group of alleged cow vigilantes.
Fearing for his life, Mohammad, who actually worked as the vehicle’s cleaner but was driving it at that hour because the driver had gone to sleep, drove the van at breakneck speed. The vehicle skidded off the road and overturned with Mohammad, a resident of Astia village in Balasore, receiving grievous injuries.
However, he was surrounded by the mob chasing the vehicle. They not only beat him thoroughly but allegedly also made him chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and ‘Gau Mata ki Jai’. A patrol van that arrived at the spot rushed him to a local hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries while undergoing treatment.
Balasore Sadar police station in-charge Ajay Kumar Murmu said that the vehicle’s driver managed to flee but that efforts were on to trace him. Police have registered two cases – one of cattle theft and another of mob lynching – in connection with the incident.
“We don’t know where the vehicle was coming from yet. We apprehended five persons, of whom three have been forwarded to court,” said Murmu, who said that the accused made Mohammad raise slogans of ‘Jai Shri Ram’.
The case of mob lynching was filed after Mohammad’s brother Jitender filed a complaint with the police.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.
