Fraternity Movement of India, Campus Front of India, and All India Students’ Association (AISA) on Saturday protested outside the Uttar Pradesh Bhawan against a Hindu seer, who delivered a hate speech against Muslims and made a rape threat against Muslim women, and demanded his arrest.
Over 50 protesters were detained by police and later released. A senior police officer said to the PTI news agency that 52 protesters — 42 men and 10 women — were detained and later released.
In a video that has gone viral on social media, Bajrang Muni Das, the mahant of the Maharshi Shri Lakshman Das Udasin Ashram in Khairabad town, can purportedly be heard threatening to kidnap and rape Muslim women while addressing a gathering in Sitapur district in Uttar Pradesh.
“I am telling this to you with all the love that if a single Hindu girl is teased by you in Khairabad, I will openly bring your daughter and daughter-in-law out of your home and rape her,” Das said on a loudspeaker in the police presence.
The video has sparked outrage on social media. The hashtag ‘#ArrestBajrangMuni’ is trending on Twitter after Muslim leaders, Opposition leaders and rights activists took to the internet to demand that the seer be arrested.
The student activists raised slogans demanding Das’ immediate arrest. Demonstrators carried placards those read: “Down with Islamophobia, “Shame UP Police,” and “Islamophobia is the new pandemic.”
