Public calls for violence against Muslims may dangerously escalate: Gujarat CM warned

Hindutva groups protest in Rajkot

By A Representative
A group of citizens from different parts of Gujarat, drawing attention of the State chief minister to some recent “inflammatory hate messaging on the social media and public calls for violence against the Muslim community”, have warned, such “public calls are criminal and dangerous and have the potential of instigating further violence.”
The hate messages, says the letter, signed by academics, activists, lawyers and concerned individuals, follows the “unfortunate” murder of Kishan Bharwad in Dhandhuka in Ahmedabad district by “certain criminal elements”.

The signatories include veteran litterateur Prakash N Shah, senior High Court lawyer Anand Yagnik, Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad) faculty Navdeep Mathur, human rights activist Cedric Prakash, environmentalist Rohit Prajapati, and minority rights leader Mujahid Nafees.
It notes, while the police “have acted with alacrity and efficiency and the investigations are going on, and there is nothing wanting as of now in the action taken by the police, especially now as the culprits have been arrested and even the ATS have been engaged”, it notes, “Following the unfortunate murder of the youth in Dhandhuka, the protesting mobs in Dhandhuka and Rajkot had turned unruly and had attacked the police and caused damage to public property too.”

Gujarat chief minister Bhupendra Patel

“This indicates”, the letter insists, “How volatile the situation is, and therefore underlines the need for concerted action on the part of the police to ensure that the life, property and livelihoods of the Muslim community across Gujarat are not endangered in any way.”
The letter demands that the police “track, file FIRs against and apprehend those criminal elements propagating hate messages against the Muslim community in the social media and prosecute them”, take “preventive action so that the situation does not go out of control”, and identify sensitive areas and provide protection to “Muslim settlements where residents are apprehensive of violence.”

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