Two children of Kanhaiyalal Teli, a Hindu tailor who was killed by two alleged Muslims after being videotaped killing him, carry a portrait of their father after a prayer meeting in Udaipur, northern state -west Rajasthan, India, June 30, 2022. REUTERS / Amit Dave
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UDAIPUR, India, July 1 (Reuters) – Two weeks before a Hindu tailor in India was hacked to death by two Muslim men who filmed the act, he was briefly arrested by police after a tailor rival accused him of an “inflammatory” post on Facebook. about the Prophet Muhammad.
Kanhaiyalal Teli’s son told Reuters that his father had re-posted a post on Facebook in support of a now-suspended spokesman for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party, whose incendiary comments about the prophet in a debate television had provoked national and international outrage in June. Read more
“My father was a very good man, he never had any problems with anyone,” Teli’s son Yash, 20, told Reuters with his head shaved according to Hindu custom after the death of a father. . “Just a republishing of a post on Facebook, and they killed him. Before, Hindus and Muslims lived together peacefully in this area.”
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Modi’s search for a “first Hindu” agenda since he came to power in 2014 has added to communal tensions in India, a country with a horrible history of Hindu-Muslim violence. Many Muslims, who make up 13% of the 1.3 billion people, complain of feeling marginalized because of Modi’s policies.
The video of Teli being murdered in the northwestern Indian city of Udaipur, posted by his assailants, went viral on social media and surprised many in the Hindu-majority country. Fearing an outbreak of community violence, local authorities have banned large rallies for a month and suspended Internet services.
A few days after his release, Teli told police that some people were doing reconnaissance of his store and that he feared for his life.
In a police report seen by Reuters, he said he was aware that his photo had gone viral on WhatsApp groups in the Muslim community and that he was being provided with protection.
A police officer said on condition of anonymity, two officers were deployed to the area after the complaint, but that they “relaxed” when Teli did not open its store for a few days.
The tailor reopened his shop over the weekend, his son said, and was killed Tuesday.
Police have reported that two Muslim men, who brandished a meat cooker while claiming the Teli massacre and threatening Modi with the same fate, have been arrested and face charges of terrorism. They worked in Udaipur but Teli did not know them, his son said.
However, the video showed that he looked unsuspected as he used a tape to measure a bearded man’s chest just before he was attacked.
“LANGUAGE FAILS”
In unusually blunt comments, India’s Supreme Court said on Friday that Modi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesman Nupur Sharma was “solely responsible” for creating a situation that led to the assassination.
“She and her loose tongue have set the whole country on fire,” Judge Surya Kant said, dismissing a request from Sharma to combine the police complaints filed against her across the country into one. “Its explosion is responsible for the unfortunate incident in Udaipur.”
Political analysts and opposition parties say tensions between the two communities are starting to skyrocket under Modi’s eight-year rule and the BJP.
The party says it works for everyone, but does not believe in appeasing any community by votes. He has asked people to remain calm after the Udaipur incident.
Teli was reported to police by Muslim tailor Nazim Ahmed on June 11 in a report, seen by Reuters, which said: “He has posted an indecent comment on the character of our prophet due to which there is anger in our Muslim society.legal action.should be taken against the said culprit “for his” inflammatory post “.
Reuters was unable to contact Ahmed because his phone was turned off. His shop, in front of Teli’s, was closed.
Police have barricaded the Muslim neighborhood where Ahmed lives and prevented journalists from approaching his family.
Opposition politicians have condemned Teli’s assassination and called for speedy justice, but they also say the BJP hurt Muslim sentiment by failing to take legal action against its spokesman.
Alka Lamba, of the main opposition party in Congress, which governs the state of Rajasthan where Udaipur is located, said “eight years of BJP rule have fed and maintained the monster of communalism.” Two BJP spokesmen did not answer their phones.
Teli’s wife, Yashoda, with her face partially veiled, blamed police for her husband’s death.
“If the police had helped us, he would have been alive,” he said. “He had to reopen the store because we were without savings. My husband was friends with everyone, including Nazim, so somewhere in his mind he wasn’t so worried.”
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Additional report by Suchitra Mohanty in New Delhi Written by Krishna N. Das; Edited by Raju Gopalakrishnan
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