Kanpur: A 16-year-old Muslim boy was allegedly beaten by unidentified men for wearing a traditional skull cap and refusing to chant “Jai Shri Ram”, police said on Saturday.
The incident occurred on Friday when Mohammad Taj, a resident of Barra, was returning home after offering namaz in Kidwai Nagar. Three or four unidentified motorcyclists stopped Taj a few hundred metres from his house for overtaking them and objected to him wearing the skull cap, station house officer Satish Kumar Singh stated.
Singh added that the attackers asked the teenager to chant “Jai Shri Ram”, and kicked and punched him badly after he refused to do so.
“They removed my cap, pinned me down and beat me black and blue while asking me to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’,” Taj told PTI. The 16-year-old further alleged that the men told him that wearing the skull cap was “not allowed” in the area.
The teenager said he cried for help and begged a couple of shopkeepers to rescue him. Later, he added, some passersby rushed to help him, following which the attackers fled.
An FIR has been registered under the Indian Penal Code, including Section 153A (causing enmity between people of different religions), the officer said.
A medical examination of the victim has been done and efforts are on to identify the accused, Singh added.
There have been at least three similar incidents in the past two weeks. On June 18, twenty-two-year-old Tabrez Ansari was “mercilessly beaten” for hours after refusing to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram.’ Two days later, a 25-year-old Muslim taxi driver in Maharashtra and a 26-year-old Muslim Madrasi school teacher in West Bengal also faced violence for refusing to chant the same slogan.
(PTI)