In one video, two men are seen attacking the victim. In another, two Muslims appear to confess to the crime and claim to be “beheading” the Hindu. However, state police told CNN on Wednesday that the victim had deep wounds all over his body, including areas in his neck, but that he had not been beheaded. India’s interior ministry said on Wednesday it had instructed the National Investigation Agency – the country’s main anti-terrorism task force – to investigate the case.
“The involvement of any organization and international links will be thoroughly investigated,” he said on Twitter. The two suspects allegedly killed the victim, a tailor, after a post appeared on his social media account in favor of the national representative of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of India, Nupur Sharma, who made derogatory comments about his prophecy. Islam Muhammad. Rajasthan police official Hawa Singh Ghumaria told CNN on Wednesday. The victim was arrested on June 12 for allegedly “blowing up religious sentiments” and has since been released on bail, Goumaria said. The two suspects have been arrested and an investigation is underway, Prime Minister Asok Gelot wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.
State authorities responded by deploying more than 600 police officers to the area.
“This incident is very embarrassing,” Goumaria told a news conference on Tuesday, before urging the public not to watch the videos and calling for calm. “There will be tension. There is always after such an incident, but everything is under control,” he said. The assassination has rekindled the flames of an already volatile situation between India’s Hindu majority and the Muslim minority, which make up about 14% of the country’s 1.3 billion population.
Asaduddin Owaisi, MP and chairman of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen political party, condemned the killing and demanded “the strongest possible action” against the suspects.
“There can be no excuse for this,” he wrote on Twitter on Tuesday. “Our party’s consistent stance is to oppose such violence. No one can take the law into their own hands.” Opposition Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said he was “deeply shocked” by the incident. “Barbarism in the name of religion cannot be tolerated,” he wrote on Twitter. “We must unite to defeat hatred. I call on everyone to maintain peace and brotherhood.” Tensions between Hindus and Muslims have remained constant throughout India’s modern history, but analysts and activists say relations have deteriorated since Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his BJP came to power with a Hindu-nationalist agenda in 2014. Since then, the ruling party has been repeatedly accused by human rights groups, activists and opposition parties of inciting anti-Muslim sentiment.
The BJP said in a statement on its website earlier this month that the party respects all religions. “The BJP strongly condemns the insult to any religious figure of any religion,” he said. Earlier this month, India sought to reduce diplomatic repercussions as at least 15 Muslim-majority countries condemned Sarma’s comments about the Prophet Muhammad. The incident sparked a stir in India’s key Arab trading partners and calls from across the Gulf to boycott Indian products. Protests over her comments have become deadly in India following the deaths of two Muslim boys in the eastern state of Jharkhand this month, as an investigation is under way to determine who dropped the deadly bullets. The BJP suspended Sarma and the Indian Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying its comments did not in any way reflect the views of the Indian government.