Lockdown in Indian town after gruesome sectarian murder

Hundreds of police officers were deployed in an Indian town on Wednesday after a Hindu tailor was allegedly murdered by two Muslim men after comments by a ruling party official about the Prophet Mohammed sparked sectarian tensions.

The cold-blooded attack in the western city of Udaipur was caught on video and quickly went viral online, sweeping a country with a long and explosive history of deadly communal violence.

The video showed tailor Kanhaiya Lal being attacked in his shop. Additional footage showed the two defendants allegedly wielding large knives and threatening to kill Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

They then justified their assassination by claiming that Lal supported statements by a spokeswoman for Modi’s ruling Hindu nationalist party, the BJP, about the Prophet Mohammed, statements that have sparked protests in parts of the Muslim world in recent weeks.

Hundreds had gathered outside Lal’s home ahead of his funeral on Wednesday, a day after several hundred gathered to protest and chant Hindu slogans in response to the killing.

People on motorcycles and cars waved saffron flags – the color of the Hindu faith – and shouted slogans calling for the death penalty for those accused.

The two young men were arrested on Tuesday while attempting to flee Udaipur by motorbike, news reports said.

To deter possible sectarian violence, authorities deployed 600 additional police officers and imposed a curfew on the city of around 450,000, cutting mobile internet access there and elsewhere in Rajasthan state.

Local authorities issued a month-long order barring four or more people from gathering anywhere in the state.

“Both suspects in the murder have been arrested and we will ensure severe punishment and swift justice,” Rajasthan Prime Minister Ashok Gehlot said.

Gehlot appealed to people not to share the video as it “would serve the attackers’ motive to create discord in society”.

On social media, members of the ruling BJP party and supporters portrayed the killing as an attack on all Hindus, with thousands of tweets carrying hashtags like #IslamicTerrorismInIndia.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesman Nupur Sharma’s comments about Mohammed during a televised debate in late May sparked protests that turned violent in some parts of India and demonstrations across the Islamic world.

She was fired from the party after her statements in which the governments of nearly 20 countries invited their Indian envoys to express their displeasure.

Lal’s wife told NDTV that her husband was arrested on June 10 for a social media post supporting Sharma and released on bail a day later.

Five days later, the father-of-two said he had received death threats but returned to work at his shop on Tuesday, she said.

The alleged video of the murder – which police have not yet confirmed is authentic – showed Lal measuring one of the men for new clothes before he and his accomplice attacked him.

Indian Interior Minister Amit Shah said the National Investigation Agency (NIA) would take over the investigation into the “brutal murder”.

“Involvement of any organization and international connections will be thoroughly investigated,” Shah tweeted.

Sporadic sectarian violence erupts in India between Hindus and Muslims, who make up around 14 percent of the country’s 1.4 billion population.

Interfaith unrest in the capital New Delhi killed 53 people in 2020, while 62 died in 2013 in the nearby city of Muzaffarnagar.

At least 1,000 people died in Gujarat in 2002 when Modi was Prime Minister. Most of the victims were Muslims.

Riots also erupted in Rajasthan earlier this year, when nearly 100 people were arrested after police fired tear gas to break up fighting and stone-throwing.

Modi’s party has been accused of marginalizing the Muslim community and sewing up divisions with Hindus since it came to power in 2014.

The row over Sharma’s remarks followed anger across the Muslim world in 2020 after French President Emmanuel Macron defended the right of a satirical magazine to publish cartoons of the Prophet.

Images of the Prophet are strictly forbidden in Sunni Islam. French teacher Samuel Paty was beheaded by a Chechen refugee in October 2020 after showing the cartoons to his class in a lesson on freedom of expression.