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.
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