A 15-year-old Muslim boy returning home from school in Uttar Pradesh’s Aligarh on Monday was allegedly attacked by members of a Hindutva group, who dragged him by his collar and forced him to urinate on a Pakistan flag pasted on a road.
A video showing a Class nine student in a school uniform being dragged and purportedly forced to chant “Hindustan Zindabad” and “Bharat Mata ki Jai” was widely circulated on social media. The boy can be seen folding his hands and pleading to the mob to spare him.
Police officers can be seen standing behind the boy while he was attacked by the Hindutva group.
Following outrage, local police said the incident will be probed.
According to the Times of India, the boy, son of a daily-wage worker, told locals, “I wasn’t aware of what was going on. I was walking with my friends, and they told me that there was something pasted on the road. So, I picked it up and they targeted me…”
The incident happened when the Hindutva group declared a ‘bandh’ in the city in protest against the Pahalgam attack.
Hate crimes against Muslims have spiked across India following the militant attack in Kashmir’s Pahalgam that killed 26 people. Last week, a 25-year-old biryani seller from Agra, Mohammad Ghulfam, was shot dead by self-styled gau rakshaks (cow vigilantes), stating that the shooting was in retaliation for the Pahalgam attack.
