India: Muslim gang brutally murders Hindu youth, Muslims spokesmen rationalize the killing

A group of Muslims in Uttar Pradesh, India, killed a 22-year-old Hindu during the Hindu festival of Durga Puja. This killing provoked massive communal riots, causing immense damage and destruction of both public and private property.

The murder victim, Ram Gopal Mishra, was participating in a Durga immersion procession on Sunday, October 13, in the Bahraich district of Uttar Pradesh. The procession was met with stones thrown from roofs and remote corners as it passed through a Muslim-majority area. Religious fanatics came out demanding that the procession stop the music (which was associated with the procession), or else they would shoot them down. The idol of the Hindu goddess was also damaged, which escalated the tensions, and a Hindu youth pulled a green flag hoisted on a nearby roof and replaced it with a saffron (Hindu) flag. As the tensions continued to escalate, the Hindus pleaded at the local police station for protection from the jihadis. To their dismay, the police unleashed a baton charge on the Hindus, further stoking the Muslim rage. Exploiting this situation, a Muslim named Abdul Hamid and his sons, accompanied by other residents of his home, dragged Ram Gopal Mishra into their house and fired multiple rounds of bullets into his body. Many other Hindus were also injured and were admitted to local hospitals.

Bloodcurdling brutality exposed

Autopsy reports confirmed that Ram Gopal Mishra had sustained wounds from over thirty bullets. The assailants even electrocuted him and poked one of his eyes with a sharp object. His thumbs exhibited burn injuries; a toenail was uprooted, and burn-like marks were seen on one of his legs. There was a great deal of blood loss, which caused Ram Gopal’s death. It is evident that the culprits didn’t just shoot him out of rage, but subjected him to a slow, painful death. This entire episode exposes a shared trait of jihadis worldwide: they don’t just kill, but they do it brutally in order to establish the killing of one victim as an example for others — a threat of sorts — lest anyone else try to oppose them or come in the way of their plans. Such barbaric patterns are recorded in the historical accounts and were followed in the killing of Intelligence Bureau staffer Ankit Sharma, as well as the Hamas attack on October 7, 2024.

How police and local administrators failed the Hindus

Some Muslims are masterful at manipulating local government administrators and political bodies. Police and government authorities dance to their tune. India was one of the original victims of this jihadi tactic and continues to be so. In the present case, when the Hindus approached the police seeking protection, the police, despite operating in a “pro-Hindu” BJP-governed state, unleashed batons on the Hindu crowd.

Addressing the violence, Bahraich Superintendent of Police (SP) Vrinda Shukla referred to the scene of the crime as “a Muslim area.” This statement is particularly problematic, because she was insinuating that the Hindus had trespassed into a prohibited zone, almost giving an excuse to the Muslims for resorting to violence.

India is a secular country; the Hindu procession was passing through a street built by the government with taxes paid mainly by the Hindus. How does this road become a “Muslim area”?

This was not the first time that a prominent person holding a key administrative position has referred to a Muslim-dominated area as a Muslim area, suggesting that it is unapproachable for non-Muslims. India is full of neighborhoods, towns, and districts with a predominantly Muslim population. According to the narrative put forward by SP Shukla and others as well, all these areas are Muslim areas and no-go zones for non-Muslims. How does this narrative work in the greater secular setup? It doesn’t. And that’s the larger plan; India will remain secular, and the Muslims will continue to trail in numbers, but they will establish “Muslim areas” where they dominate.

Blatant justification of the killing

Eminent media personalities and political representatives from the Muslim cabal argue that the victim had replaced the Islamic flag with a saffron flag, which prompted Abdul Hamid and the gang to drag him inside his house and torture him to death. While many videos of the swapping of the flags have surfaced online, it has not been confirmed that the victim was the one seen in the photos and videos.

However, let us agree that Ram Gopal Mishra was indeed the one who swapped the flags. Does this act justify his brutal, cold-blooded killing by the Muslim criminals?

On Monday, October 14, a Muslim named Saleem Salman Thakur entered a Hindu temple in Hyderabad, Telangana, India, and desecrated an idol. This act was caught on CCTV. Furious Hindus organized a protest demanding punishment for the culprit. The police have since apprehended the accused, and the law will follow its course. Incidents of Muslims entering Hindu religious premises with dubious motives are plentiful, but there has not been any retaliation from the Hindu side that claimed any lives.

The Muslim media coterie drummed up its fallacy of victimhood in 2021 after a Muslim teen found loitering deep inside the Hindu temple premises in Dasna was slapped by the temple priests. The temple committee suspected the boy had come to scout out construction material for a planned robbery later that night (such occurrences have been experienced in the past), so they confronted him. Media outlets spun the story, stating that the boy was just “thirsty,” craftily concealing the fact that a public tap was installed just opposite the temple entrance. And today, Muslim media personalities are actually defending the killing of a Hindu youth by pointing out the swapping of the flags.