Mob attacks Muslims at the time of iftar; forced them to flee
Ranchi: A mob attacked Muslim houses around Iftar (breaking of fast) in the evening and assaulted several people including women in Koderma district of Jharkhand on Friday night. As a result, around 20 Muslim families were forced to flee their homes in the night. The mob also vandalised the masjid and assaulted the Muslims who were offering Maghrib prayer there. The incident took place around 6:30 PM on Friday in the Kolgarma village under Koderma police station.
A similar incident had occurred in April last year as well. For the past couple of years, a group of local Hindus has been opposing construction of a masjid in the village. The mob reportedly had been pressurizing the Muslims to withdraw their police complaints over the previous attack. Since the Muslims lodged the complaint last year, they have been facing a boycott. They are not allowed to purchase anything from the village shops and to use even public well.
Following the Friday night incident, the Muslims have filed another complaint with the police. The complaint stated that the attackers were armed with swords, axes and lathis. The complaint further stated that a crowd of hundreds of people barged into the masjid and started beating the people when Muslims were breaking fast in the masjid, leaving several injured. The injured were rushed to the Sadar hospital.
While shouting provocative slogans, the rioters vandalised the masjid and burnt the copies of Holy Quran. The rioters asked Muslims to leave the village otherwise each one of them, men, women and children would be killed. The terrorized families fled their homes in the night itself. They walked around 8 kilometers and took refuge in the campus of the district collector’s office.
