In Alwar, Rajasthan, on the night of Thursday, July 21, 4-5 Muslim youths allegedly harassed and assaulted one Gurbaksh Singh, a former granthi of a Gurudwara. The miscreants reportedly accosted the victim, beat him up, threw red chili powder in his eyes, and cut his hair, something Sikhism prohibits its followers from doing. According to a report by Swarajya, the root cause of the attack is an interfaith love affair between a Sikh man and a Muslim woman.
Alwar: “4 people stopped a man in bike, they threw red chilli powder in his eyes n wanted to cut his head. But when they found out that biker is a sikh n works in Gurudwara, They called a man named Jumma n they cut his hair n coz it is an equal punishment” pic.twitter.com/XSovcQcUXe
— Facts (@BefittingFacts) July 22, 2022
As per the Swarajya report, Gurbaksh Singh in his statement recorded in the first information report (FIR), alleged that around 7.30 pm on Thursday, he was on his way from his home in Milakpur to Alavada to buy medicines when the miscreants allegedly waylaid him. A youth asked him to stop his bike and park it on one side of the road, saying that a Sikh man was lying injured. As Singh halted his bike, the youth was joined by his four aides, who dragged Gurbaksh Singh, threw red chili powder in his eyes, and covered his eyes with a cloth. Two of them were carrying knives.
The miscreants, then, pinned him down and put a knife on his neck. They started discussing a plan to behead Singh but the latter started pleading with them, urging the miscreants to tell him his offence. To this, the miscreants said that men like him were eloping with Muslim girls.
Gurbaksh Singh told the miscreants that they were mistaken and that he was not a native of Alwar but of Sikri, and he was a granthi (priest) at a gurdwara.
Upon learning that the victim was a Sikh priest, the miscreants decided against killing him and called one man named ”Jumma”, who asked them to instead cut off his keshas (unshorn hair). Singh urged them to cut his throat instead of cutting his hair since it is strictly prohibited under Sikhism, but the miscreants still continued. The miscreants then fled leaving Gurbaksh Singh in an injured state.
Around 15 minutes later, when Gurbakh Singh regained consciousness and got a hold of himself, the men had left.
Based on Singh’s complaint, the Ramgarh police filed an FIR (number 417/2022) on July 21 and booked “Jumma” and four unidentified men under IPC sections 323 (causing hurt), 341 (wrongful restraint), 307 (attempt to murder), 153A (promoting enmity), and 295A (deliberately hurting religious sentiments).
According to the Swarajya report, Jumma Khan is the Sarpanch of the Alawada village, which is predominantly a Muslim-dominated village.
Swarajya spoke to a resident of Alwada village, who, on conditions of anonymity, told the news portal over the phone that a Sikh man and a Muslim woman belonging to their village had eloped in April to get married. He added that both the individuals are adults and their affair was also consensual.
“The Meos saw it as an affront to their community. They staged protests. Eventually, Jumma intervened and made the police recover the woman. From the police station, Jumma brought the woman back home despite her wish to go with the Sikh man,” the villager told Swarajya.
“Since then, that Sikh family has been living under threat. They have not been going out much,” he added.
The villager confirmed that Jumma Khan was the sarpanch of Alwada village in Alwar, which is predominately occupied by Muslims. In contrast to the “400 votes” of Sikhs, he said that Muslims make up “1500 votes” in Alawada. Notably, Muslims are predominantly Meo converts in Alwar. The majority of Sikhs are Rai Sikhs, who belong to the backward castes.
According to the report, Alwar Superintendent of Police Tejaswani Gautam was quoted by PTI as saying that it appears that Singh was singled out because of long-standing animosity between Sikhs and Meo Muslims in the village of Alawada over alleged love affairs.
Meanwhile, on July 22, the enraged villagers, including Hindus, gheraoed the police station and demanded an expeditious investigation into the incident. They demanded that the miscreants who had fled the scene of the crime after the incident, be apprehended quickly and dealt with strictly.
Alwar, close to Mewat- Haryana’s ‘Mini Pakistan’, is the hotbed of organised crimes
Alwar in Rajasthan borders the state of Haryana and is part of what is called the Mewat region. Over the years, Alwar has emerged as a hotspot for rapes and crimes against women. Mewat, characterized as Haryana’s Mini Pakistan, has been known to be a hotbed of organised crime, cattle smuggling, and illegal Rohingyas.
In an affidavit, the then-director general of police for Haryana, Manoj Yadava, stated in 2019 that the police officers in Mewat worked in a hostile environment and were in danger of their lives and safety.
In response, the court noted that Mewat’s cow slaughter and smuggling offences were “being committed by hardcore smugglers fully trained and that too in a well-planned manner on large scale in an organised way.”
In the year 2020, an investigation report by a 4-member team headed by former Justice Pawan Kumar asserted that Mewat is gradually turning into a graveyard for Hindus, especially Dalits. The report said that the rapes of girls, the kidnapping of women, thrashing and killing of Dalit residents with impunity, and forced religious conversions have become par for the course.
The investigation team led by former justice Pawan Kumar made scathing observations on the plight of Dalits at the hands of Muslims in Mewat. Kumar observed that the plight of Hindus, especially Dalits left in Mewat might be worse than the minorities living in Pakistan.
OpIndia had reported about the horrific atrocities being inflicted on the Hindus of Mewat as well after a press release related to Justice Pawan Kumar’s 4-member team’s investigation report came to light. OpIndia got in touch with a few journalists who visited Mewat and spoke to many of the victims. These reporters briefed us about quite a fewshocking incidents, which they were given an account of, and with their due permission, OpIndia shared those details.
Mewat has a history of atrocities being committed against Hindus
Over the years, many Hindu organisations have raised their voices against the rampant atrocities committed against Hindus, especially Dalits in Mewat. Not only the RSS and VHP activists, but other institutions have also raised their concerns against the rising number of criminal incidents happening in Mewat.
A 2013 report of the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti states that these incidents happening in Mewat are not a matter of today. Rather, the attitude of the Muslim majority of people has been continuing for a long time due to which many activists were forced to call it a “mini-Pakistan”. The report states that the way Hindus in Pakistan are persecuted and stripped of their basic rights, similarly, the Dalits and Hindus in Mewat are subjugated by the Muslim majority, and atrocities are committed against them.
The report of the committee mentioned that the people of Tablighi Jamaat in Mewat motivated members of the local Muslim community to wage love jihad, jihad, and forced conversion. Also, this report mentioned an incident where Veer Singh, while making a statement on his father-in-law’s conversion to Islam, states that his father-in-law was converted to Islam a while ago and was later sent out for 4 months. However, when he returned, he once again started practicing Hinduism, due to which he received death threats.
The condition became so dire that he had to go into hiding to escape retribution from fanatic Muslims. His wife and children were also harassed. He was accused of tearing the Quran, which later proved to be false. Apart from this, when his daughter was about to get married, some Muslims reached the wedding venue and started shouting that the girl cannot marry by Hindu customs because her father had converted to Islam and that she would have a “nikah” and that too only with a Muslim man. However, the girl’s mother later objected to this and eventually the marriage was completed under police protection.
The reports of the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti and former justice Pawan Kumar’s investigation team make it beyond clear that the spread of Muslim fundamentalism in Mewat has been deep-rooted and firmly ingrained. The former judge while in conversation with OpIndia said that out of the 500 villages in Mewat, only 103 continue to be Hindu, and there are only 4-5 families of Hindus left in 84 villages.
