A tailor suspected of being killed for supporting Muhammad's remarks is fearing a new round of religious conflict in India

The Paper's reporter Wang Zhuoyi

The recent murder of a Hindu tailor by a Muslim man has sparked a new wave of religious tensions in the northern Indian state of Rajasthan.

The crime process is "too terrible to see"

The BBC and CNN reported on June 29 that the tailor, Kanhaiya Lal, was killed on June 28 by two Muslim men in Udepu, Rajasthan, and the two suspects also videotaped the process and uploaded it online, quickly provoking outrage across the country.

It is reported that two suspects impersonated customers and entered Lal's store and launched an attack while Lal was measuring the dimensions. Earlier, it was reported that the suspect said that Lal would be "beheaded". However, the Rajasthan police told CNN on the 29th that Lal had deep wounds all over his body, including his neck, but he was not beheaded.

The suspects claimed the move was in retaliation for Lal's inappropriate remarks about islam's prophet Muhammad in support of the BJP spokesman. Former BJP spokesman Nupur Sharma made controversial remarks about Mohammed on state television in May.

The BBC reported that Lal had allegedly posted in support of Sharma on social media.

In another video, the suspect also boasts about the killings and threatens Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi while wielding a butcher's knife. Because the video was "too scary to watch," a senior Rajasthan police official asked the media not to play it.

According to Reuters, the Indian government has asked social platforms to immediately remove content that encourages, glorifies or defends the killing later on the 29th.

According to the BBC and the Indian Express, Ashok Gehlot, the chief minister of Rajasthan, a member of the Congress Party, pointed out on the 29th that the purpose of the suspect's crime was to "spread fear", and he called on the public to remain calm.

The city has a curfew

On June 29, Udaipur was completely closed, with few pedestrians on the streets, and the government disrupted mobile Internet services, banned large-scale rallies, and imposed strict curfews. The Government has also deployed more than 600 police officers on the ground.

The population is densely populated, with a majority of Hindus and a Muslim minority living side by side, but tensions are already evident. On the 29th, thousands of people attended Lal's funeral, and some of the people who attended the funeral chanted slogans and became emotional. Security measures at the funeral are tight.

"We live in a Hindu majority country, and this shouldn't have happened." Jaipal Verma, the sales executive who attended the funeral, asked modi's government to "investigate the matter so that it doesn't happen again."

However, most Udaipur people are not prepared for curfews, and many even have difficulty obtaining basic rations.

A local citizen said: "Daily wage workers are the most affected. Everything that happened was quite shocking. ”

According to comprehensive foreign media reports, on June 12, the police arrested Lal for spreading "offensive posts" on the Internet and hurting religious feelings, and after Lal was released on bail, he asked the police for protection on the grounds that his life was threatened.

A police official told The Indian Express that police then called a peace conference of some Hindus and Muslims, after which Lal said he "did not need to do more against anyone".

According to The Times of India and The Print, Lal's family said Lal had never posted something on social media that allegedly supported Sharma. Lal's wife, Yashoda, said Lal was a good husband, a good father, and that his tailor shop employees were also Muslims, and that "we have good relations with our Muslim neighbors."

Lal's aide, Priyamvat Deval, said Lal had reported himself being harassed by police, "but the police ignored his concerns" and simply advised him to install surveillance cameras.

Yashuda also said that there had been threats to behead Lal, and Lal had also reported it to the police, "but the police ignored it."

Indian police: The suspect has links to a Pakistani organization

According to the BBC, Lal's killing sparked a concerted condemnation from various Political Parties in India.

Some BJP leaders said they would hold a march in the capital, Delhi, to protest Lal's killing. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi called himself "deeply shocked" and called for the attackers to be punished immediately.

Some of India's leading Muslim groups have similarly condemned the killings. The All-India Muslim Personal Law Board called the matter "highly reprehensible" and a violation of both Indian and Islamic law.

Muslim Rashtriya Manch, a Muslim group of the Hindu far-right National Volunteer Service Corps (RSS), denounced the two suspects as "terrorists and devils," discredited "peace-loving" Muslims in India and other parts of the world, and demanded the death penalty, New Delhi TV reported on June 30.

Vasundhara Raje, the former chief minister of the Indian Party of Rajasthan, criticized the state government led by Ashok Gloth, saying there was "a situation of mass fanaticism and violence" in the state.

Indian police identified the two suspects from the social media video and arrested them on the evening of June 28. The Indian government has sent the Country's top counter-terrorism agency, the National Bureau of Investigation, to investigate the incident.

According to the Indian Express on June 29, Rajasthan police said on the same day that preliminary investigations revealed that one of the two suspects was linked to The Dawat-e-Islami, an international religious organization in Pakistan, and had visited Karachi in 2014. Groot also said that based on the information he had, the two suspects had overseas backgrounds.

Indian police also announced at a press conference that in addition to the two suspects, they had arrested three other people involved in the case. However, according to Pakistan's "National Newspaper" reported on June 30, Pakistan denied on the 29th that the two suspects had a connection with "Dawat Islami".

Responsible Editor: Zhang Wuwei Photo Editor: Le Yufeng

Proofreader: Luan Meng