After Religious Clash in India, Rumors Create a False ‘Martyr’
Arafeen said that They started abusing us, saying, ‘If you want to live in Hindustan, you must chant ‘Hail Sita and Ram,’
"They consider themselves Muslims before Indians, whereas the Hindus consider themselves Indians first
and then Hindus." "The solution to such problems is to control their population," Mr. Solanki added.
According to a police report filed by Sushil Gupta, the father of Abhishek Gupta, the man who was actually killed, a group of Muslims began taunting the Hindus, shouting "Long Live Pakistan," and telling them
that they would have to chant "Hail Pakistan" if they wanted to pass.
Around the same time, dozens of men on motorbikes affiliated with a far-right Hindu student
group approached the assembly, asking that the Muslims move the chairs so they could pass.
In the years since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party rose to power in 2014, violent outbreaks between Hindus
and Muslims have become more common in some pockets of India.
Purnendra Pratap Singh Solanki, the district president of the Bharatiya Janata Party, took a harder line, characterizing
the confrontation as a "preplanned conspiracy" by a growing Muslim population to target Hindus.
