Hindu extremists attack Muslim students with knives and sticks during Tarawih prayers

A number of Hindu extremists attack Muslim students with knives, sticks, and stones while performing Tarawih prayers (social networking sites)

Video clips showed Hindu extremists attacking Muslim students with knives, sticks and stones, while they were performing Tarawih prayers inside the campus of Gujarat University in the city of Ahmedabad, located in the state of Gujarat, northwestern India.

The videos that circulated on social media platforms date back to yesterday, Sunday, March 17, 2024, and show a group of Indian citizens who chanted Hindu slogans, assaulting foreign students during Tarawih prayers, causing serious injuries among them, after which two of them were transferred. To hospital intensive care.

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International students (Africa, Uzbekistan, Afganistan etc) studying in Gujarat University @gujuni1949 claim they were beaten up, Stones thrown at them and at their hostel (A-Block), Vehicles destroyed while they were offering Ramazan Taraweeh at a place inside the hostel A-Block… pic.twitter.com/ogJ3h7FUin

- Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) March 16, 2024

The scenes showed the rooms of students on scholarship from Africa, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan, after they were filled with chaos after they were stormed by the group that attacked the students, armed with sticks and knives, severely beating them, smashing their phones and devices, and throwing stones at them, chanting Hindu slogans.

In this video, A Student of Gujarat University from inside their hostel can be heard saying, “Police let them go, Police let them go! They are running away! They broke everything, They are going away. The police aren’t arresting them This is a democratic country, this is a… pic.twitter.com/4MCKDh4Y7y

- Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) March 16, 2024

A student from Afghanistan narrated the details of the attack to a local newspaper, saying, “15 Muslim students were praying inside one of the buildings on the university campus, and 3 people came chanting Hindu slogans and asked them not to pray, then they left, so the students could continue their prayers.”

A number of Muslim students at Gujarat University performing Tarawih prayers (social networking sites)

He added, "After a while, they returned with at least 200-250 people, and they threw stones at the worshipers. They were carrying knives and sticks. They threw stones at us, and smashed our bikes, laptops, phones, air conditioners, sound system, etc."

A Student from Afghanistan while speaking to a journalist from @NewsCapitalGJ says, 15 Muslim students were praying Namaz inside the Hostal premise in A-Block.

Three people came and asked them not to offer Namaz.

After completing their prayers, When the students asked what's… https://t.co/ziD4AiwC3m pic.twitter.com/DMEnqendIU

- Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) March 17, 2024

He continued, "Many students were injured, and 5-6 students were hospitalized. Two from Africa were also injured, and one each from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan."

When he asked whether you had filed a complaint with the police, the student replied, "No, we did not. The police were already here, and they allowed the goons to go, and did not stop them. What is the use of complaining? We are not safe here, and we ask Gujarat University to move us to a safe place."

For his part, another student said, “We have been praying Tarawih prayers for years and have obtained permission from Gujarat University.”

One of the students says, They've been offering Namaz from the past few years after getting permission from Gujarat University.

pic.twitter.com/1RXM8BNpqR

- Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) March 17, 2024

For its part, Ahmedabad Police said that students studying at the university were attacked by unknown assailants, causing injuries and the arrest of two accused, and later published a picture of them.

Two accused were arrested by the Ahmedabad Crime Branch in the case of assault and vandalism between students studying at Gujarat University.

1) Hitesh Rakhubhai Mewada.

2) Bharat Damodarbhai Patel.

@GujaratPolice @AhmedabadPolice @MEAIndia #GujratUniversity pic.twitter.com/5LC6BIVdVs

- Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) March 17, 2024

Police Commissioner GS Malik said, "Security personnel acted based on a complaint from the university hostel security. They monitored the names of 25 residents of the area and identified the strangers who came to the hostel and will be arrested soon."

Statement by Commissioner of Police GS Malik.

He says, FIR is registered on the complaint of Hostel Security.

25 names have been added in the FIR.

They identified outsiders who had come to the hostel and will be arrested soon.

pic.twitter.com/AaXzBhtmGw

- Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) March 17, 2024

While the vice chancellor of the university blamed the foreign students, under the pretext of their lack of understanding of the nature of Indian society, the official spokesman for the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, Randhir Jaiswal, commented through his account on the “X” platform - formerly “Twitter” - that “the state government is taking strict measures against... "The perpetrators. We are in contact with the Gujarat government," he said, noting that two foreign students were injured in the clash and one of them was released from the hospital after receiving medical care.

An incidence of violence took place at Gujarat University in Ahmedabad yesterday.

State government is taking strict action against the perpetrators.

Two foreign students were injured in the clash.

One of them has been discharged from hospital after receiving medical attention.…

— Randhir Jaiswal (@MEAIndia) March 17, 2024

For his part, Speaker of the All India Assembly, Asaduddin Owaisi, denounced the incident through his account on the “X” platform, saying, “What a shame. When your sincerity and religious slogans only come out when Muslims practice their religion in peace. When you become inexplicably angry just by seeing Muslims.” "What is this, if not mass extremism? Anti-Muslim hatred is destroying India's goodwill."

What a shame.

When your devotion & religious slogans only come out when Muslims peacefully practice their religion.

When you become unexplainably angry at the mere sight of Muslims.

What is this, if not mass radicalisation?

This is the home state of @AmitShah & @narendramodi,… https://t.co/OshZUIoWjl

- Asaduddin Owaisi (@asadowaisi) March 16, 2024

Gujarat and ethnic cleansing against Muslims

The state of Gujarat, which borders Pakistan, is known as one of the most intolerant states for Hinduism, as it has been the scene of massacres, displacement, and systematic persecution against its Muslim population for decades.

Gujarat is the fifth largest state in terms of area, amounting to about 196 thousand square kilometers, and the ninth largest state in terms of population, amounting to about 60 million people.

89.1% of the state's population practice Hinduism, while Muslims represent 9.1%, Jains 1.0%, Sikhs 0.1%, and Christianity 0.01% of the population.

In September and October 1969, the first major sectarian riots against Muslims since India's independence took place in Gujarat, leading to the death of more than two thousand people and the loss of more than 50,000 of their homes and property.

The Reddy Commission for Justice - formed by the government - placed responsibility for the violence on Hindu nationalist organizations, but the guilty were not punished, and none of the recommendations made by the commission to reduce the recurrence of violence against Muslims were implemented.

Since that date, the level of tolerance in Gujarat has declined, and mass killings have continued to rise through a series of waves of religious violence that the region has witnessed.

In 2002, riots occurred known as the “Gujarat Massacre,” in which more than a thousand people were killed, most of them Muslims.

The National Volunteer Organization played a central role in those massacres, in which the extremist Hindu leader Narendra Modi began his career, as he was the governor of Gujarat at the time.

Government statistics indicate that more than 98,000 people - the majority of whom are Muslims - reside in more than 100 relief camps across the state.

Muslims, who number more than 200 million out of the country's estimated population of 1.4 billion, have suffered persecution and racial discrimination since the party of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power on May 26, 2014.

About 10 years ago, Modi launched a series of measures and approved policies against Muslims, which he began by abolishing the special status of Indian Kashmir and restricting Muslims.

The ruling party then proceeded to amend the citizenship law and require Muslims to have documents proving that their ancestors were in India before 1971. The party then passed the law granting Indian citizenship to immigrants on the condition that they are not Muslims.

A human rights association announced in March 2016 that since Modi took power, it had recorded at least 600 attacks, including 451 against Muslims instigated by extremist pressure groups, the most important of which was the National Volunteer Organization.

An "independent international expert committee" classified Muslims as the largest "persecuted minority" in India, which has an estimated 80% Hindu majority.

In 2019, a fact-checking website that tracks “hate crimes” in India reported that more than 90% of victims in the past 10 years were Muslims.

Source: Al Jazeera + social networking sites