Muslims asked to vacate homes, their shops and shanties set ablaze by Hindu mobs
Haryana: Amid continuous violent attacks on Muslims in different parts of Haryana by Hindus, over 200 Muslim families were forced to leave home amid threats.
While 14 families have fled Badshahpur, nearly 200 families have been forced to leave slums in Sector 70. Most of those who fled are migrant workers from West Bengal and Jharkhand and other states, News Laundry reported.
In the last many days, Muslims have seen brutal attacks by Hindu mobs in the state. Six Muslims including a mosque Imam, Moulana Saad, 19, were murdered by the Hindus, many shops and other structures were vandalised and vehicles and Mosques set on fire too.
As Hindus issued open threats to Muslims to leave the state, residents of a slum cluster in Palra village of Gurugram’s Sector 70A, as per The Hindu, said majority of the families, most of them from parts of West Bengal, fled the area while the remaining live in fear with some spending the night in a wooded area even as the Gurugram police continue to deny any incident in the area.
In one recent attack on Muslims, motorcycle-borne assailants hurled Molotov cocktails at two mosques in Tauru in Haryana’s Nuh district last night.
No one was injured in the incidents that took place around 11:30pm on Wednesday night, PTI reported quoting police. While one of the mosques is located near Vijay Chowk, the other is near a police station. Both mosques suffered some damage.
Soon after information was received about the incidents, fire brigades were rushed to the two mosques and the fire was doused, police said.
A bangle shop in Palwal district’s Minar Gate market was also set on fire by “unidentified assailants”, they said.
Six people have died so far in the violence, 116 people have been arrested and 90 detained, according to the Haryana government.
Scared by the violence, auto-rickshaw driver Rehmat Ali is thinking of going back home to West Bengal.
“Some people came on motorcycles on Tuesday night, threatening us that if we do not leave, they would set fire to our slum. Police have been present here since night but my family is scared and we are leaving the city,” Ali told PTI, who lives in a slum in Sector 70A of Gurugram.
Like Ali, there are many others who have decided to leave the Millennium City that provides livelihood to a number of migrant people from across the country.
Bamisha Khatun, a native of West Bengal who also lives in the Sector 70A slum, said that she had come to Gurugram in search of work three years ago.
Khatun, who works as maid, said, “I fear for my life and property, and have decided to leave for my hometown.”
Ahila Bibi, another migrant, said that she did not want to take risk and would come back later when the situation improves.
Khalid, a native of West Bengal, said he has no other option but to leave the city.
“We talked to our land owner who clearly said that he will not be responsible for any untoward incident in the wake of communal flare-up. So, we decided to return to our native village,” Khalid, a painter, told the news agency.
According to police, several people, most of them from Muslim community, living in slums in Wazirabad, Ghata village, Sector 70A and Badshahpur, are returning to their native place.
