Karnataka: Muslim Man, Family Attacked By Mob In Kolar, Women Told to ‘Take Off Their Burkhas’

A mob of Hindu youth brutally assaulted six Muslim men in Karnataka’s Kolar district on Saturday. The incident allegedly occurred after the mob stopped the car of a Muslim family returning from a dargah (shrine) nearby and asked the women to “take off their burkhas”, leading to a scuffle. 

Two FIRs have been filed against the assaulters and three men have been arrested so far. Meanwhile, the assaulters have also filed an FIR alleging that the injured persons attacked them.

“I was returning from the dargah (Hazrat Usman Shah Vali) in Teerhalli in a car along with my family. A group of Hindu youth stopped the car and started creating trouble. They were yelling and asked the women to take off their burkhas. This led to a scuffle between us. We immediately called the police,” Zubair told The Cognate. 

“They were saying that Muslims must not be allowed to come here,” he said, adding that the assaulters belong to a “local village that is on the way to the dargah on top of the hill. Many Muslims pass by this village while travelling there.”

“The police were trying to investigate the matter. The assaulters ran away into the village and some of my family members went into the village looking for the mob. However, they were cornered and brutally attacked with rods and sticks and have now been admitted to the SNR District Hospital,” he said. 

“I had a deep wound on my head and was almost unconscious. We told the police that they attacked us. The mob continued to threaten us with sticks and abuse us in front of the police,” Firdous pasha, one of those injured, said. 

The others injured are Tajammul Shariff, Maaz Beg, Feroz Pasha, Saeed Pasha, and Shaikh Anwar.