After they were detained for allegedly throwing stones at a Hindu religious celebration called Navratri Garba in Gujarat state, Indian police took things to a new low by tying Muslim men to a pole and publicly flogging them with canes.
Police officers in plain clothes are shown assaulting Muslim males while their hands are restrained in viral recordings. According to NDTV, there were also police officers there while a sizable throng cheered and chanted slogans.
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The footage was also posted by the neighborhood news source VTV Gujarati News, which said that “10 to 11 heretics were hauled to the village, where the police taught them a lesson in public” at Undhela village.
The men were asked to “apologize to the public” and the police inspector in charge of the area was present too, the report added.
On Twitter, people in response to the video questioned the police’s “kangaroo justice”.
Indian news agency PTI had reported that a mob of around 150 people threw stones at a Garba event on the premises of a time last night and 43 were named in the case.
According to the first information report (FIR) members of the Muslim community in the village objected to the Garba event being organized near a mosque, which is located across from the temple.
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Earlier, Kheda superintendent of police Rajesh Gadhiya had said a group of people led by two Muslim men entered the Navratri Garba venue and “started causing trouble”.
The incident is one of many in which Muslim men are accused of disturbing the festivities. Hindu right-wing outfits such as the Bajrang Dal have warned them against it.
Five Muslim men were detained from a Garba pandal in Madhya Pradesh’s Ujjain, but police later said they had not committed any crime. The arrest was only preventive, an officer added that the men had argued with the organizers and the police.