‘This is our village, convert to Islam if you want to stay here’: Muslims attack Tejram [ Uttar Pradesh, India ]

[ Reported as seen]

In  Mehrauli, a Muslim-dominated village in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, 60-year-old Tejram was attacked by his Muslim neighbours for not converting to Islam. They further gave him death threats. According to Tejram, the assailants said, “This is our village…if you want to stay here you’ll have to stay as per our whims. We Muslims make up 90% of the village population. If you irk us you will have to wash your hands off your life and property/land. Embrace our religion or leave this village.”

He further revealed that the Hindus in the village had to go through the same by the same community of the village. He said that he is not the first to face such intimidation. Previously, other Hindu residents of the village have also been threatened and harassed. But no one has ever dared to speak up as they are all afraid of the Muslim men.  Tejram further stated that the Muslim men have weapons in their possession and also have links with local gangsters. He said that it is also believed that the Kosi Kalan police and revenue department employees are also under the Muslim community’s control. Which is why his complaint also went unheard for all this while, said Tejram.

In a media report, Tejram said, that when he was younger, the hamlet did not have a large Muslim population. In the years since, not only has the Muslim population grown significantly but several Hindus in the area have also been compelled to flee. He further revealed how for the last almost two decades, the village has not had a Hindu sarpanch. The current Muslim leader also backs the radical Muslims who have made it difficult for the Hindus to live their lives.

Tejram described another incident in which a Dalit woman was violently beaten up by Muslim villagers and made to compromise while detailing the suffering of the village’s Hindu population at the hands of the Muslim villagers. He further said , “Many times in the past, Muslims here have implicated Hindus in bogus cases and gotten away with it.”

The fate of the Hindus in Mehrauli will be the same if the country does not check the growing radicalistaion of the Muslim community. The treatment the Hindus meet by the hands of such Muslims while blindly looking forward to the authorities, is far from a civilized mindset.