The streets of Balisana village in Patan district of Gujarat were filled with mobs coming out of the mosque. The attackers reportedly targeted Hindu youths over an appreciative status on Whatsapp for the movie “The Kerala Story.”
Readers may recall that the movie “The Kerala Story” was released on May 5, 2023. The plot of the movie is about the mass religious conversion of Hindu girls by luring them with false love, followed by their conversion and induction into Islamic terrorist groups such as ISIS. The story is based on true events of hundreds of Hindu women who were trapped and manipulated by Islamists to join ISIS.
In a recent case, Hindu youth in Patan posted a status on social media platforms supporting the film. In anger over this status, Islamists gathered at the mosque and attacked five Hindu boys after the namaz. The slogans they shouted were life threatening.
The mob was armed with swords and sticks and seriously injured up to three people. All those affected were admitted to the Radhanpur hospital. After the melee, a large police contingent was deployed in the area.
According to media reports, a few weeks ago, a 10th grade student posted a status on a social media platform supporting the movie “The Kerala Story.” Local Muslims were angered by this status and called the boy to the mosque and allegedly forced him to apologise for his behaviour. The boy did apologise, but the matter was not settled here.
According to the victim, on July 16, he was on his way back from a restaurant after having dinner. When he arrived near the mosque, people asked for his name, and after identifying him, they called in a mob and beat him mercilessly. Those who tried to save him were all brutally beaten.
The mob said, “Kill him, don’t spare, kill these Hindus”.
According to the victim’s testimony, the defendant Abdul Qadri, attacked them with an iron rod. The others are Taufiq Hussain, Nazeer Miyan Sheikh, Sheikh Sahad Mohammad and others.
As per the reports, the accused men in the case have been booked under IPC sections 307 (attempt to murder), 326 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 143 (unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting with deadly weapons and arms), 504 (intentionally insulting), 506 (criminal intimidation), 294-B (playing obscene songs) and Gujarat Police Act.
The attacker said, “Aim at his head, he should not live after this day”. The victims were attacked with sticks. The local Hindu activists claimed that the region has undergone demographic changes over the years and people from different states have migrated to the area.
In the region, there are cases of love jihad–a Hindu woman forced to convert by a Muslim man for nikah or land jihad–the illegal seizure of land for the purpose of religious expansion and housing immigrants.
The film “Kerala Story” has provoked public protests in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. It performed poorly in Tamil Nadu, apparently forcing the Tamil Nadu Multiplex Association to halt further screenings; however, the filmmakers deny this and claim political censorship. The film suffered a similar fate in Kerala.
On the eve of the release, several petitions were filed in the Madras High Court, the Kerala High Court, and the Supreme Court of India demanding a ban on the grounds that the film promotes communal disharmony. The petitions were either not heard or dismissed by the courts; however, the filmmakers were ordered to remove all promotional material, including the teaser, which claimed that 32,000 girls had converted to Islam and joined ISIS in real life.
On May 8, the West Bengal government banned the film, calling it “hate speech” and citing negative intelligence reports of rising communal tensions in the audience.
The filmmakers challenged the decision in the Supreme Court, and the ban was stayed. However, the filmmakers had to accept the addition of two disclaimers — that the characters in the film are not authentic and that the film is a “fictionalised” account of real events.
The film was well-received and grossed over 1000 million rupees at the box office. More importantly, it was declared tax-free in several states. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also said ‘The Kerala Story’ shows the ugly truth of terrorism and exposes the plans of terrorists.
PM Narendra Modi applauded the Movie 'The Kerala Story' pic.twitter.com/yG3nUITPfE
— Political Kida (@PoliticalKida) May 5, 2023
