[The crime devastated the family and shook the Muslim community. Sitting outside Akhlak Ansari’s house, his cousin Nanhe Ansari said that before the attack there had not been conflict between the Hindus and Muslims in their village. But he thinks there has been a growing distance between the communities since Modi came to power.]
By
Niha Masih
 |
|
Akhlak Ansari, center,
outside his home near Sitamarhi, shares the story of his
father's killing with
human rights activist Harsh Mander, left, who has been
traveling across the
country to offer solidarity and legal assistance to
families of hate-crime
victims in India. (Nina Masih/
The Washington Post)
|
SITAMARHI,
India — Last fall, 13 people in the state of Bihar
were arrested for being part of a mob that burned an elderly Muslim man to
death. Within a month, all were released on bail, despite photos that appear to
show them participating in the crime.
For Akhlak Ansari, the slain man’s son, the
suspects’ swift release was a blow. People who get caught for minor crimes,
such as violating Bihar’s prohibition on liquor consumption, are detained for
at least three months, he said. “But for murder, they have given bail to
everyone,” Ansari said.
In religiously motivated hate crimes, the
accused are often released on bail, and the prosecution of suspects can take
years — conditions that worsen the sense of division in communities struck by
these acts of hate and exacerbate a climate of fear for the victims and their
families, experts say.
Under the Hindu nationalist government of
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who took office in 2014 and is running for
reelection this spring, reports of hate crimes by extremist Hindu groups have
increased. Data cited by a Human Rights Watch report last month said that 90
percent of such recorded crimes have happened since 2014.
These crimes target mostly Muslims, often by
radical groups in the name of protecting cows, which are considered sacred by
Hindus. Nearly 80 percent of India’s population is Hindu.
Harsh Mander, a rights activist who has spent
decades working to heal divides between Hindus and Muslims, recently created a
team to assist the families of hate-crime victims in fighting court battles in
the slow-moving judicial system. On a recent afternoon, his team visited Ansari
in the town of Sitamarhi, in a remote corner of Bihar state.
“Without justice or the promise of it, it is
impossible for the survivors to heal or move on,” he said.
Zainul Ansari was killed on a fall day last
year, when a religious procession in Sitamarhi during a Hindu festival turned
violent. The crowd — which police estimated numbered a few thousand — clashed
with the procession as it tried to detour into a Muslim neighborhood. A rumor
that Muslims had thrown stones at the procession had enraged the crowd. The
82-year-old was on his way home when he came upon the mob, who beat him with
sticks and then set him on fire.
“I don’t understand why the mob would burn
him,” Akhlak Ansari said.
The crime devastated the family and shook the
Muslim community. Sitting outside Akhlak Ansari’s house, his cousin Nanhe
Ansari said that before the attack there had not been conflict between the
Hindus and Muslims in their village. But he thinks there has been a growing
distance between the communities since Modi came to power.
“There is no hatred towards us as
individuals, but there is animosity towards Muslims as a community,” Nanhe
Ansari said. “In a riot-like situation, any Muslim can become a target.”
Modi has condemned attacks by self-proclaimed
“cow vigilantes,” saying that violence had no place in the country.
A neighbor listening to Nanhe Ansari speak
said that he had begun taking the longer route into the city of Sitamarhi to
avoid passing by the Hindu areas. One of Akhlak Ansari’s uncles pleaded with
the younger men milling around to avoid fights with Hindus.
The Human Rights Watch report, which detailed
hate crimes carried out by Hindus against Muslims, concluded that not only had
law enforcement authorities failed to protect the victims, but they also
impeded investigations into the crimes.
In eight of the 11 cases researched in the
report, police “initially stalled investigations, ignored procedures, or even
played a complicit role in the killings and coverup of crimes.” In several
cases, the police even filed legal complaints against the victims. The report
slammed the “failure” of the government to “take adequate steps to prosecute
those responsible.”
Delayed police action was highlighted by the
national media in the Ansari case. The first arrests were made almost a month
after the crime.
Local police denied charges of negligence. NH
Khan, one of the state’s top police officials, said that the investigation had
been prompt and that the suspects were charged with murder.
In one of the earliest and most infamous cow
vigilante cases, a Muslim man was beaten to death by his neighbors in 2015
because they suspected that he had eaten beef. But four years later, the trial
has yet to begin, despite that the case is in a special “fast-track” court
empowered to adjudicate quickly. The man’s family left the village after the
killing and have not returned.
Akhlak Ansari said he briefly considered
moving elsewhere. “But this has been our home for generations,” he said. “Where
can we even go?”
Read more
