'Sharpening communal assaults by BJP after poll setback': CPI(M) condemns spate of attacks against Muslims
New Delhi: The CPI(M) on Thursday strongly condemned the spate of attacks against Muslims in various parts of the country in the period since the election results were announced.
"Such sharpening of communal assaults following the setbacks suffered by the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections highlight the fact that the BJP and the Hindutva communal forces will intensify their attempts at polarisation with a renewed vengeance," the party Polit Bureau said in a statement.
The CPI(M) asked all its units to remain vigilant against "unscrupulous manoeuvres" by the BJP and other communal outfits. Party units throughout the country should organise protest actions immediately against the vicious attempts at vitiating the atmosphere and seeking to divert the attention of the people, it said.
The party cited instances in Raipur, Aligarh Mandala, Akbarnagar, Vadodara and Nahan where Muslims were targeted.
In Chhattisgarh capital Raipur, three Muslim men transporting bullocks were branded as cow-smugglers and killed by so-called cow-vigilantes while in Aligarh, a Muslim man was beaten to death on allegations of theft, it said.
In Madhya Pradesh's Mandala, 11 houses of Muslims were demolished within 24 hours after alleged reports of “beef” being recovered from their refrigerators. In Lucknow’s Akbarnagar, a predominantly Muslim area, homes of over a thousand families were bulldozed for a construction project.
People belonging to the Hindu community in the neighbourhood have come out in open protest against the allotment of a flat to a Muslim woman in a low-income group housing complex under the Chief Minister’s Housing Scheme in Gujarat’s Vadodara, the CPI(M) said.
In Himachal Pradesh’s Nahan, it said, the shop of a Muslim was looted and vandalised after allegations that he had sacrificed a cow during Eid-al-Adha. A case has also been registered against him for the alleged cow slaughter. All the other 16 Muslim shop-owners in the town have been forced to flee following the incident, it claimed.
In Delhi’s Sangam Vihar there are reports of residents fleeing the area after provocative speeches made by members of Hindutva outfits, following the recovery of a cow carcass near a place of worship, it added.