Officials in the western city of Udaipur, Rajasthan state, announced a curfew and blocked Internet access after videos of the incident went viral on social media, causing massive outrage across the country. country.
In a video, two men can be seen starting to attack the victim. In another, two Muslim men appear to have confessed to the crime and claim to have “beheaded” the Hindu man. However, state police told CNN on Wednesday that the victim had deep cuts all over his body, including cuts to his neck, but that he had not been beheaded.
The Indian Interior Ministry said on Wednesday that it had ordered the National Investigation Agency, the country’s main anti-terrorism working group, to investigate the case.
“The involvement of any international organization and links will be thoroughly investigated,” he said on Twitter.
The two suspects allegedly killed the victim, a tailor, after a post appeared on his social media account in favor of the now-suspended national spokesman for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of India, Nupur Sharma, who made derogatory comments. about the Prophet of Islam Muhammad. Hawa Singh Ghumaria, a Rajasthan police officer, told CNN on Wednesday.
The victim was arrested on June 12 for allegedly “inflaming religious feelings” and had since been released on bail, Ghumaria said.
The two suspects have been arrested and are being investigated, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.
State authorities have responded by deploying more than 600 police officers in the area.
“This incident is very embarrassing,” Ghumaria said during a press conference on Tuesday, before urging the public not to watch the videos and to ask for calm.
“There will be tension. There is always after such an incident, but everything is under control,” he said.
The assassination has rekindled the flames of an already volatile situation between India’s Hindu majority and its Muslim minority community, which account for about 14% of the country’s 1.3 billion people.
Asaduddin Owaisi, MP and chairman of the All India political party Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, condemned the assassination and demanded “the strictest possible action” against the suspects.
“There can be no justification,” he wrote on Twitter on Tuesday. “The constant stance of our party is to oppose this violence. No one can take the law into their own hands.”
Opposition party leader Rahul Gandhi said he was “deeply shocked” by the incident.
“Brutality in the name of religion cannot be tolerated,” he wrote on Twitter. “We must unite to overcome hatred. I call on everyone to maintain peace and brotherhood.”
Hindu-Muslim tensions have remained constant throughout India’s modern history, occasionally erupting in violence, but analysts and activists say relations have worsened since Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the his BJP came to power with a Hindu nationalist agenda in 2014.
Since then, the ruling party has been repeatedly accused by rights groups, activists and opposition parties of provoking anti-Muslim sentiment.
The BJP said in a statement on its website earlier this month that the party respected all religions. “The BJP strongly denounces the insult of any religious personality of any religion,” he said.
Earlier this month, India struggled to contain the diplomatic consequences, as at least 15 Muslim-majority countries condemned Sharma’s statements about the Prophet Muhammad. The incident sparked a scandal among India’s top Arab trading partners and calls across the Gulf to boycott Indian products.
Protests over his comments grew deadly in India after two Muslim boys were killed east of Jharkhand this month, with an ongoing investigation to determine who fired the deadly bullets. it does not in any way reflect the views of the Government of India. “