Hindu men boast of Hindu Govt while forcing Muslim man to chant Jai Shri Ram in Utt’nd
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Attacks on Muslims and other minorities, including Christians, have been increasing in Uttarakhand and several other BJP-ruled states, and the latest case came from Pauri Garhwal where a Muslim man was assaulted on Independence Day for refusing to chant “Jai Shri Ram,” leading to the arrest of three men.
The survivor, Rizwan Ahmad of Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh, had stopped for tea at a shop when he encountered the accused, who appeared to be intoxicated, and the situation escalated into a communal assault, according to The Indian Express.
The attackers, identified as Mukesh Bhatt, Naveen Bhandari, and Manish Bisht, allegedly forced Ahmad to chant nationalist and religious slogans, and when he resisted, they beat him and subjected him to Islamophobic abuse.
During the attack, the accused reportedly grabbed Ahmad’s beard and mocked him by declaring it should be cut off, while recording the assault on video, which later circulated online. The footage showed Ahmad bleeding and distressed as the attackers issued threats, hurled communal slurs, and coerced him into chanting both “Bharat Mata ki Jai” and “Jai Shri Ram.”
The attackers were also heard questioning why he could not chant “Bharat Mata ki Jai” on Independence Day, insisting that he must chant “Jai Shri Ram” if he wanted to live in India, and declaring that the government was that of Hindus until he reluctantly repeated the slogans. One of them further escalated the intimidation by saying that he would be cut either by halal or by jhatka, which reflected the openly communal and threatening nature of the assault.
Ahmad managed to escape through the back of the shop and fled towards his vehicle, though the assault left him injured and shaken. The video also captured the accused making declarations about religious dominance and conflating national loyalty with chanting “Jai Shri Ram,” a pattern increasingly seen in recent hate crimes.
In his complaint, Ahmad added that the same group targeted another Saharanpur resident, Muhtiyar Puttan Islam, on the same day by attempting to force him to chant “Jai Shri Ram,” though he avoided a violent confrontation.
An FIR was registered at Srinagar police station in Pauri under multiple provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, including sections on voluntarily causing hurt, promoting enmity between groups, deliberate acts intended to outrage religious feelings, criminal intimidation, and intentional insult with intent to provoke a breach of peace.