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Gurugram: Muslim family thrashed by vicious "RSS" mob in India

Dunya News

Screenshots of a mob lynching of members of a Muslim family in Gurugram, India.

NEW DELHI (Dunya News) – Approximately 40 vigilantes went on a rampage with sticks and swords on the day of Holi (March 21), barging into a house and assaulting members of a Muslim family in Gurugram – who had been living there for 15 years – dishing out insults and carting away valuables.

The nature of the assault and violence seemed so intense that the recorded video went viral on the social media, especially Twitter that has sent shockwave throughout the Muslim community.

Now, the family members are contemplating to leave their home as the violent mob told them to “Go to Pakistan.”

The attack was allegedly triggered on the instructions of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and was carried out by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

In the attack, which apparently erupted after a cricket ball hit someone, the goons severely beat up the men and pushed children and women of the house.

It went on for several minutes and was captured on a family member’s mobile phone.

Video grabs of the assault were captured on a family member’s phone.

The video initially shows family members in the upper floor of the house blocking the entrance door to prevent the entry of attackers.

The camera then points to the scene downstairs showing the attackers hitting the men of the house, while the women are seen wailing.

The video, posted on Twitter, shows the gang members screaming: "Go to Pakistan".

According to the police complaint, Sajid’s nephew Dilshaad, who was among those beaten up, said the trouble started when he was playing cricket with some others in a vacant plot near the house.

“Two unknown men came on a bike and said, ‘What are you doing here? Go to Pakistan and play’.

They began fighting and when my uncle Sajid intervened, the boy sitting at the back of the bike slapped him and said, ‘You wait, we will show you’,” he alleged in the police complaint, adding that 10 minutes later, they saw six boys on two bikes and several men on foot approaching their home, armed with “bhalas” (spears), “lathis” (sticks) and “talwars” (swords).

Sajid’s wife, Sameena, said: “I was in the kitchen making food when I heard a ruckus outside. By the time I went out, the men had barged into our house and started beating people up. I begged them to leave us, but they paid no heed.”

“They broke the windows, our cars and took away valuables, including a pair of gold earrings, a gold chain and Rs25,000 I had kept in the house,” she said.

The attack has spread fear of political violence across India as Muslim families, who are in minority in majority of the states, were being constantly assaulted. Besides denial of equal rights in the society, violence against Muslim women has become a norm in India.

One of the family members, Mohammad Sajid, who owns a furniture repair shop in Gurugram’s Ghasola village, said, "We are planning to either move back to our village or to Delhi. If this has happened here once, it can happen again. Even if something like this happens in our village, at least we will have 15-20 people who will stand by us. We are entirely alone here," as quoted by the local media.

Sajid had built a home for his wife and six children in Bhoop Singh Nagar colony in Dhumaspur village three years ago.

Meanwhile, the BJP’s opposition party Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday blamed the RSS and the BJP for the attack on a family in Gurugram triggered by a game of cricket on Holi.

Saying that every patriotic Indian is disgusted by the video, the RSS and the BJP channelise bigotry and hatred for "political power".

Stating on the Twitter, the Congress president added that the incident serves as a warning of the dangerous consequences and the dark side of that strategy.

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