On July 31, an Islamist mob pelted stones at a Hindu religious procession in Haryana’s Nuh district. The devotees gathered to attend the procession, which covered temples in the district. Many media reports have revealed that the attack was pre-planned, as the locals were angry over a cow vigilante joining the procession. The other trigger point is assumed to be the state government’s action against cow smugglers.
It is noteworthy that while searching documents relating to the violence, Organiser accessed as many as fifteen FIRs where the victims revealed the horrors of the day. Some said attackers were chanting Pakistan Zindabad and Allah Hu Akbar slogans, others found vehicles from Rajasthan; and some were attacked and looted.
In one such attack, a police constable, Mandeep Singh, was attacked by as many as 40-50 Islamists. His service gun and other weapons were looted, and he had to run so as to save his life.
Following the FIR, the Nuh police arrested one of the accused on August 18, identified as Imran, son of Sahun and a native of Tapkan. After the arrest, the accused was presented before the magistrate and sent to the police custody.
What says the FIR?
A First Information Report (FIR number–400/2023) was registered at Sadar Nuh police station on August 1 by Constable Mandeep Singh. Singh was stationed in the Nuh district following the Shobha Yatra.
In his statement, Singh told the police that, following the clashes, he and another constable, Ashok Kumar were going to the police station carrying guns. As soon as he reached the village, near the houses of Islyas and others, they encountered men in bike, with their faces covered.
They were all equipped with weapons, their TVC Apache bike collided with Singh’s vehicle, and the miscreants opened fire at them. In the meantime, around 40-50 miscreants assembled in front of the nearby shops, equipped with sticks and attacked them. One of them attacked Singh, after which he fell to the ground.
The bike-borne masked rioters fired directly at the constable with illegal weapons, in which he narrowly escaped. During this, 40 to 50 people surrounded constable Mandeep and attacked him with sticks and looted a pump action gun, 20 cartridges of 12 bore, 35 cartridges of 9 mm.
Those miscreants took the guns from Singh and Kumar and left, leaving their bikes behind. After they left, Singh found that the vehicle had a number plate from Rajasthan.
The station in-charge told media, that constable Mandeep pleaded for his life, told the rioters several times that he was a policeman and asked to go on duty. But the rioters did not agree. At the same time, the constable left his bike there and saved his life by running away from the rioters.
As per the FIR, they were all booked under IPC sections 148 (rioting with deadly weapons), 149 (unlawful assembly), 332 (causing hurt to a public servant), 353 (assault or force deter to a public servant), 186 (obstructing a public servant from discharging duty), 188 (disobeying orders), 342 (wrongful confinement), 395 (dacoity), 397 (robbery), 307 (attempt to murder), and sections of the Arms Act, among others.
The FIR had no names in it and was registered against unidentified miscreants, now one of them has been identified and arrested. The outsider’s role, is yet to be identified.
The preparations
As per the media reports, from July 21 to 23, miscreants held meetings in parts of the city to prepare for the attack. WhatsApp groups were formed to coordinate, people were designated leaders and assigned responsibilities, and stones were gathered and assembled.
The attackers also collected glass bottles of cold drinks and fuel to use them as petrol bombs. More than 200 motorcycles were marked for use, and their number plates were painted black so that they would not be identified by police in any footage.
Ahead of the procession, Islamists took shelter in the hills with weapons and stones. These miscreants stayed there the whole night near the Nalhar temple, the focal point of the procession.
What triggered the violence?
According to the police, a religious procession, ‘Brij Mandal Jalabhishek Yatra’, which was flagged off from Gurugram’s Civil Lines by BJP district president Gargi Kakkar, was stopped by a group of men near Khedla Mod in Nuh.
Media reports have claimed that a cow vigilante, Monu Manesar shared a video stating he will attend the Yatra no matter what Meo’s think of him. Manesar shared the video almost ten days before the Shobha Yatra.
Manesar, whose real name is Mohit Yadav, is a Bajrang Dal leader and head of its ‘gau rakshak’ dal in the state and a social media influencer.
He is a hated figure among the Meos for his ‘gau raksha’ activities where he and his team chase and intercept vehicles suspected of carrying stolen or smuggled cattle for slaughter. Nuh is a notorious hub of cow slaughter and beef trade.
Manesar was also named as a suspect by the family of victims in the infamous Nasir-Junaid murder case.
Nasir and Junaid, both Meo and residents of Ghatmika village in Bharatpur district of Rajasthan, were found burnt to death in Loharu in Haryana’s Bhiwani district. Their families accused ‘gau rakshaks’ for their murder, naming Monu Manesar as one of the suspects.
In their investigation, the Rajasthan Police did not name Manesar as a key accused, but have named him in the chargesheet for larger investigation.
After news of Manesar’s possible visit to Nuh spread, residents planned an attack on him. Social media is rife with videos and posts where Meos left death threats for Manesar and his Bajrang Dal team a day before the procession.
A resident of Pakistan, who falsely described himself as living in the Mewat region in India name ‘Ahsan Mewati Pakistani’ on his YouTube account is also considered a key instigator in the violence.
In one of the videos posted a day before the procession, Ahsan can be seen telling Meo residents of Mewat — called Mewatis — to beat up Hindus to teach them a lesson.
He says, “This Monu Manesar is coming to Mewat. He should be killed. Why are Mewatis so scared? These Hindus should be beaten and taught a lesson.”
He further abuses the Hindu community and says Muslims are not scared to even slit throats.
“If Monu enters Mewat, then kill him. Either kill or get killed. If you die, you will be called a martyr and get Jannat,” he says, and adds, “Hindus shiver when they see tip of a sword. But we Meos cab stab and slash without fear.”
The Demography of Nuh
As per the census 2011 data, Nuh Tehsil of Mewat district has a total population of 287,101 as per the Census 2011. With 219,716 Muslims in the district, the Islamists made up a fair 77 percent of the total population. On the other hand with 66,285 Hindus the Hindu population makes up 23 percent of the total population. Forced conversion, cow smuggling, abduction, drugs, and murder are some of the many crimes that are rampant in the area.
Five tehsils of the Mewat region that fall in Haryana comprised more than a million Muslims in 2011. Their population share rose from 62 percent in 1971 to 75 percent in recent years. The report published by the Centre for Policy Studies reads, “From the data, it is clear that the Muslims of Mewat have numerically flourished in the period following Independence. And, they seem to be in the process of establishing an exclusively Muslim pocket in the near future.
