Hundreds protest in Delhi against lynchings, communal divide

Hundreds of people, including film stars and social activists, on Wednesday gathered at Jantar Mantar here to protest against the recent incidents of lynching of minorities and Dalits, particularly in BJP-ruled states.

Family members of Mohammad Akhlaq, who was lynched by a mob on suspicion of keeping beef in his home in Dadri in Uttar Pradesh two years ago, and others were present at the event organised under the banner of "#NotInMyName" close on the heels of the lynching and murder of 16-year-old Junaid in a train following an argument that turned communal.

Carrying banners saying "Not In My Name", activists including Shabana Azmi, Medha Patkar, Aam Aadmi Party leaders and citizens said communal division of the country and lynchings should stop.

"Fundamentalists are dividing people... We need to have events like these that create pressure against this trend," Patkar told IANS.

Saba Dewan, who started the campaign on Facebook, said: "This is against the systematic violence taking place against Dalit Muslims. The state has done nothing and there is a deafening silence. Pehlu Khan is our brother and Junaid is our son."

Another organiser, Bilal said 80 per cent of the victims of lynching were Muslims.

A stage was erected with a map of India on it with dots for locations where such incidents have taken place in recent times. At the protest, which was to be a "silent protest", there were songs and speeches calling for communal harmony.

The most significant of the lynchings was that of Mohammad Akhlaq in 2015, father of an Indian Air Force personnel, who was killed by a mob on suspicion of beef being kept in his house in Dadri, on the outskirts of national capital.

In April 2017, a dairy farmer was killed after being attacked in Alwar district of Rajasthan by self-styled cow vigilantes.

Last week, teenager Junaid was attacked by a group and killed while travelling in a train from Delhi to Haryana.

Dewan, a Gurugram-based independent film-maker and researcher who has taken the initiative with other social and human right acivists to organise the campaign, said the protest was against lynchings of Dalits and minorities.

"These are the people of India, who are saying in one voice that the systemic violence being unleashed against Dalits, minorities and other underprivileged groups is 'Not in My Name'," Dewan said in her Facebook post.

--IANS

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