On Temple Opening Day, Vandals Ransack Chicken Shop Of A Muslim Couple In Belagavi, Video Viral

Amidst a spike in communal violence targeting Muslims in Karnataka, supporters of a Hindutva group ransacked a chicken shop of a Muslim family, according to a week old video that surfaced on social media on Tuesday showed with reports saying that police have refused to register a case. 

The shop of Hasan Sab Qureshi and his wife Afsana Hasan in Yamanapur in Belagavi district was vandalised and ransacked by the mob on the day of the opening of the temple in the area on October 8. According to Indian Express, the mob threatened the couple to shift the shop somewhere else. 

The Hindutva group asked for the closure of chicken and meat shops in the area on the opening of the temple though there was no order from the administration.

“We were allowed to open till 11 am and we did close the shop by then. By afternoon, we sent two of our workers to clean the shop and that is when some of them attacked the workers, assaulted them and vandalised the shop. When my husband and I went there after getting to know about this, they threatened us that they would not allow us to live in the town and tried to extort money from us,” Afsana said, according to Indian Express. “When we tried to open the shop again, these goons continued to trouble us and tried to extort money saying that they would expel us from the village.”

The couple approached the police who suggested they go for “compromise” after holding a meeting even as they had demanded action and a case to be registered against vandals, reports said.

“The police told us that they had ‘settled the matter and would not intervene in our business and told us that there was no need to file a complaint,” Afsana said.

Ironically when the video went viral on Monday, police began investigating the leak instead of the attack.