Madhya Pradesh: Muslim man thrashed by a mob and threatened with death for talking to a girl.
Location: Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh On January 18, hours after a video went viral, showing a college student being thrashed by a group of people in Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh, the police arrested six people and filed a case in the matter. But the police didn’t show speed and efficiency. They had been informed of the assault 15 days earlier – yet took no action until the video found its way to social media. It was shot on 3rd January in the parking lot of a shopping complex. The student was identified as Shahbaz Khan, a postgraduate student. His attackers were identified as belonging to right-wing Hindu groups, including the Hindu Jagran Manch and the Hindu Student Army. Accusing Shahbaz of “love jihad”, they dragged him to a police station where the Khandwa police filed a molestation case against him. There are several similar cases in the state. Led by Hindutva activists, they claim to be tackling “love jihad” in the state – a Hindutva bogey that claims Muslim men seduce Hindu women with the intention of converting them to Islam.
In multiple cases, those attacked alleged the involvement of the Hindu Student Army, which was founded in 2018 by a man named Madhav Jha and five others after the Mandsaur rape case in 2018. It began in Indore and now operates in Khandwa, Khargone and Burhanpur. In at least two cases, Madhav Jha has led the assaults on Muslim men. But he’s never been arrested, and the police haven’t named him in any FIR.
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