Shaukat Ali was made to kneel in the mud and punished by eating the pig, that his religion considers impure. The district goes to the vote on April 11. The sale of beef is legal in Assam. The President of the Indian of Maduzor-Eto-EItteat Muslimeen Partym: “Lynching of an innocent elder is illegal in every part of India”.

New Delhi (AsiaNews/Agencies) – A Muslim man from Assam was dragged, beaten with sticks and forced to eat pork by a group of radical Hindu "cow protectors". The group was furious because the man was selling cow meat, which is the sacred animal of the Hindu religion. For this reason the nationalists repaid him with religious "just punishment".: force him to eat the animal considered impure by Islam. The video was then spread on social media, where it has been shared and viewed thousands of times.

The accident occurred in Biswanath district 7 April. Shaukat Ali, the Muslim, he was made to kneel in the mud and surrounded by an angry crowd. In the video, the attackers can be heard screaming: “You have a license to sell beef? You are from Bangladesh? Your name is in the national register of citizens [Indians]?”.

Ali suffered several injuries and is hospitalized in the government hospital. According to the Indian news agency NDTV, the police arrested five people and registered two complaints. Rakesh Roushan, head of the district police, declared that the attack "is not an episode of sectarian tensions".

However, several social media users underline the confessional aspect of the lynching, a few days before the start of the Indian general elections, on April 11th. In Biswanath district, which comes under Tezpur Lok Sabha constituency (the lower house of the Indian Parliament), we vote on that date. By Asaduddin Owaisi, president dell’All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen Party, “lynching of an innocent elder is illegal in every part of India”.

In India the cow is the sacred animal of Hinduism and its killing is considered an insult to the gods. For this reason, groups of nationalist fanatics justify as "due" the violence against those who dare even just transport them to the market. Several Indian states have banned the trade and consumption of meat and forced the closure of slaughterhouses. However, Assam is not included among these, where the sale is legal. The announcement was contested by several parties, because it puts the survival of the poor at risk, especially Muslims and Christians, who work the skins. The Supreme Court also had to intervene on the issue to cancel the ban on cattle slaughterhouses.

http://www.asianews.it/notizie-it/Assam,-muslim-forced-to-eat-pork-by-cow-protectors-46723.html