Gurgaon police are yet to identify the man seen on CCTV footage thrashing a skullcap-wearing youth on Saturday but promised “prompt action” after the victim met the city’s police chief on Monday.
Apprentice tailor Mohammad Barkat Alam, 25, was returning from a mosque when he was assaulted. Earlier in the day Prime Minister-elect Narendra Modi had appealed to lawmakers supporting him to win the trust of the minorities.
“Only one person is seeing assaulting him in the CCTV footage. He has not been identified yet,” police spokesperson Subhash Boken told The Telegraph after Alam met police commissioner Muhammad Akil. “The commissioner has assured him of prompt action.”
Alam said he had arrived in the Haryana city from Begusarai, Bihar, about three weeks ago to learn tailoring from his cousin, Murtaza, in Gurgaon’s Jacobpura area.
“I was returning after offering namaz at Gurugram Jama Masjid on Saturday night when a group of men — some of whom seemed drunk — stopped me and said that skullcaps are not permitted there. They asked me to raise slogans of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’. I tried to leave but one of them tore my clothes and hit me with a stick until I fell unconscious. They also said they would feed me pork (considered unclean in Islam),” Alam told this newspaper.
The police have not mentioned in the FIR that Alam was asked to chant the slogans.
Alam was at first reluctant to approach the police, but community elders, including Mufti Mohammed Salim Qasmi, prevailed upon him and later accompanied him. “We appreciate the police for immediately deploying personnel in the area and collecting the CCTV footage the same night. The commissioner said that 20 people had been brought in for questioning and the police were on the lookout for the culprit,” Qasmi said.
Last year Hindutva activists had tried to disrupt open-air Ramazan namaz in several places in Gurgaon.
Gambhir trolled
East Delhi BJP MP Gautam Gambhir was trolled on Twitter for demanding justice for Alam. Gambhir had tweeted: “In Gurugram Muslim man told to remove skullcap, chant Jai Shri Ram’. It is deplorable. Exemplary action needed by Gurugram authorities. We are a secular nation where @Javedakhtarjadu writes ‘Oh palan hare, nirgun aur nyare’ & @RakeyshOmMehra gave us d song ‘Arziyan’ in Delhi 6.”
Several tweeters, including those with “Chowkidar” prefixes, said they had “regretted voting” for him and asked him to also speak up against attacks on Hindus or “stay quiet”.
That prompted the cricketer-politician to tweet: “My thoughts on secularism emanate from honourable PM Mr Modi’s mantra ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas, sabha vishwas’. I am not limiting myself to Gurugram incident alone, any oppression based on caste/religion is deplorable. Tolerance & inclusive growth is what idea of India is based on.”
