India: Case filed against Muslims beaten by mob

CHANDIGARH, India

Police in northern India have registered a counter case against Muslim family, which were attacked by a mob and told to “go to Pakistan” last week, local media reported.

According to Times of India, a local daily, Deputy Commissioner of police Himanshu Garg said the cross-first information report was registered on the basis of the statement of an accused, who claimed that he was first attacked by the members of the Muslim family.

“Medical reports confirmed Rajkumar sustained head injuries,” Garg was quoted by the daily.

However, Mohammad Dilshad, one of the victims beaten by the mob on March 21, said that the charges against him and his family “make no sense”.

“I fail to understand what kind of system this is. The entire world has seen in a video that we were roughed up, that my hands were broken. Some of our family members are still lying in hospital, and now the police have filed a case against us. This is bizarre and complete injustice,” a report published by The Citizen, a news portal, quoted Dilshad as saying.

The attack on the Muslim family became known across India after a video on social media showed a mob entering the house and beating the family members with hockey sticks and iron rods, asking them to go to Pakistan. Police made arrests in the case.

This is not the first time when Muslim victims of communally-charged violence in India have been slapped with counter-criminal cases.

In 2018, Pehlu Khan, a farmer who was killed by a mob in northwestern Rajasthan state in 2017, was booked for trying to transport cattle out of the state without the permission of the competent authority.