Five people are under arrest after a Muslim man in India was allegedly lynched by Hindus. The apparent perpetrators of the horrific crime posted a video of Tabrez Ansari being violently beaten on YouTube. He later died from his injuries.
The video is 10 minutes long, and the story has gone viral in the days since it was posted. We weren’t able to locate the original video, so it seems likely that Google has removed it from YouTube since it was posted at least a week ago.
Multiple press outlets report that Tabrez Ansari was lynched by Hindus after being accused of committing a burglary. The video showed him tied to a pole and being forced to yell, “Jai Shri Ram,” which means “Hail, Lord Ram.” Hindus sometimes use the slogan.
Ansari’s wife later denounced the burglary allegation and described the killing of her husband as a hate crime. The killing of the Muslim man in India occurred the night of June 17. She said he was returning to their village from Jamshedpur when the men stopped him and tied him to an electric pole. She said he was beaten for the entire night before the group turned him over to police.
However, she said that instead of taking action against the men accused of beating him, the police arrested her husband on a burglary charge. She added that her husband died of internal injuries in the hospital. The couple has been married only a few months. Ansari’s family questioned why he was forced to shout Hindu slogans when the problem was supposedly that he was accused of burglary.
Tabrez Ansari’s wife alleges negligence on the part of police and jail administrators and blames them in part for his death. A police spokesperson told news outlets that after registering charges of theft against him, they took him to court, which ordered that he be sent to prison. The spokesperson said police are not guilty of negligence in the case.
Tabrez Ansari isn’t the first Muslim man in India who was allegedly lynched by Hindus. Indian police are dealing with a growing mob threat in the country with at least 12 people having been killed by mobs. Of the 12, 10 were apparently Muslims accused of things like possessing beef or cows. Hindus believe cows are sacred, and millions of Hindus worship them. Most of those accused in these deaths are reportedly part of radical Hindu groups. Media reports state that Ansari is the 18th person to be lynched or killed by mob violence in Jharkhand, India over the last three years
Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das ordered an investigation into the latest man’s death. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi says he is “pained” by the death and promised “stringent punishment” for those responsible.
