So untenantable and uncontested has it become in the Yogi-ruled UP for Muslims in public places that a man merely identifiable through a beard, skullcap, or traditional attire could, at any time, be attacked by a mob on reasons devised to justify the attack at the time.
The 30-year-old cleric, Maulana Tousif Raza Mazhari, was one of the latest victims of a mob attack on a moving train and was, a day later, found dead on the tracks on Sunday, April 26, near the Bareilly Railway Station in Uttar Pradesh.
Though the railway police tried to downplay it as an accident, the victim’s wife told the media that she herself had seen her husband being attacked over a video call the deceased had made during the melee with unidentified persons.
Mazhari, a resident of Bakhotoli village in Bihar’s Kishanganj district, served as an imam and madrasa teacher in Siwan and had travelled to Bareilly to attend the Urs of Tajusharia before boarding the train for his return journey.
According to his family, what transpired thereafter was not an accidental fall from a moving train but a calculated and merciless assault camouflaged under the familiar pretext of branding the victim a thief in order to neutralise public sympathy and incite collective hostility.
Tabassum Khatoon, the cleric’s wife, recounted to media organisations that her husband had called her while visibly distressed and informed her that several men aboard the train were beating him.
She stated that, despite his repeated pleas and his attempts to show fellow passengers his books and madrasa bag to establish his identity, those surrounding him remained passive spectators while the attackers allegedly dragged him by the collar, slapped him repeatedly, and hurled abuses at him.
In the voice recording of the call, Mazhari could reportedly be heard saying that some intoxicated individuals had accosted him and were assaulting him without provocation, while he repeatedly urged his wife to contact the police. Tabassum asserted that his appearance may itself have rendered him vulnerable to profiling and violence, adding that he wore a skullcap and maintained a beard.
Questioning the railway police’s accident narrative, family members pointed towards the condition of the body, contending that the injuries bore unmistakable signs of physical assault rather than the catastrophic trauma ordinarily associated with a fall from a speeding train.
Mazhari’s uncle alleged that the assailants had deliberately branded him a thief to manufacture suspicion against him and thereby facilitate the attack without resistance from fellow passengers.
While the family is yet to lodge a formal complaint, they have indicated that legal proceedings would follow, as community members demanded an impartial investigation and stringent action against those responsible. AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi also shared the victim’s voice recording on the social media platform X while urging the railway authorities to identify and prosecute the perpetrators.