NEW DELHI – A granny smartphone video shows the last moments of Kanhaiya Lal Teli’s life: The tailor seems to be counting customers in his shop, but when he turns his back, he is suddenly attacked. A second video shows the consequences. Spotting blood-stained chopsticks, two men warn Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi of igniting religious tensions in India and vow to take revenge for blasphemous acts. Indian authorities on Wednesday expressed fears of escalating violence following the horrific assassination of a Hindu – and creepy videos filmed and posted on the Internet by his apparently Muslim assailants – shocked a country already struggling to contain riots. The killing in the lakeside town of Udaipur is the latest flare-up in a month-long dispute that erupted when a spokeswoman for India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata (BJP) party, Nupur Sharma, criticized the Prophet Muhammad for marrying underage women. Sharma’s comments, made during a May 26 appearance on a television talk show, were condemned by more than a dozen Muslim countries, but Sharma became a hero to many in India’s right wing. Teli’s Sharma posts on social media have angered two local Muslims, Gaus Mohammad and Riyaz Attari, police officials said on Tuesday as they closed Udaipur bans and cut off internet access across Rajasthan. an attempt to prevent the spread of protests in the state. Local authorities promised to punish Internet users for sharing videos and photos of the murder, but by late Tuesday, videos and photos had been widely circulated and video clips repeatedly played on television news. “We beheaded the tailor,” Attari said in one of the videos. “We live for our God and we will die for him. Listen to me, Narendra Monti. You lit this fire. We will erase it. “ Mohammad and Atari were not linked to any extremist groups in their videos, but Indian officials saw the killing as a terrorist attack and showed that the men were not acting alone. The couple were arrested at a highway checkpoint late Tuesday as they allegedly tried to leave Udaipur on a motorcycle and were questioned about their alleged links to two Pakistan-based militant groups, the Hindustan Times reported. Ashok Gehlot, the chief minister of Rajasthan, which belongs to the Indian National Congress, an opposition party, said on Twitter on Wednesday that investigators had gathered information about the killers’ foreign contacts, but did not reveal details. The killing was “beyond imagination,” he said, urging Monti to address the nation and call for unity. “There is a need to improve the atmosphere,” Gehlot said. “There is a climate of tension across the country.” India, which is about 80 percent Hindu and 15 percent Muslim, has a long history of religious conflict. But in the past year, increases in hate speech and community unrest – which have so far resulted in relatively few deaths – have raised fears of tensions leading to large-scale bloodshed. Hindu preachers have rallied openly calling for the mass murder of Muslims. Hindu mobs have wielded their swords menacingly outside mosques, forcing Muslims to throw stones at them. As the clashes erupted, local officials in several cities called for bulldozers to demolish Muslim homes and shops, a move critics say is a form of collective punishment. On Indian social media, conspiracy theories accuse Indian Muslims of waging “jihad” against Hindus by seducing their wives and spreading the coronavirus. “We are looking at a cycle of endless violence if a significant number of people from both communities manage to convince themselves that their differences can no longer be resolved politically,” said Debashish Roy Chowdhury, a political commentator and author. As Muslims become increasingly marginalized in Indian society, he added, there is a risk of “self-radicalization”. On Wednesday, Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, one of India’s most prominent Islamic organizations, condemned Teli’s assassination as “contrary to the law of our country and our religion”. The group’s leader, cleric Hakimuddin Kasmi, called on all Indian citizens “to restrain their feelings and keep the peace.” In the weeks before Telli’s assassination, controversy over Sarma’s comments about the Prophet Muhammad had sparked widespread condemnation in the Islamic world, leading the Indian government to apologize, but the incident also sparked a complicated debate in India over BJP political identity. and whether there should be limits to freedom of speech. Critics of the BJP say prominent party members often incite religious tensions by making provocative statements, and party critics have backed his decision to fire Sharma. But her ousting angered many in the BJP’s Hindu nationalist political base, who argued that Sharma mentioned only what was in Islamic writing and accused her critics of intolerance. Telli, one of Sarma’s defenders, wrote about the social media controversy, which angered his Muslim neighbors, according to a police complaint filed in early June. The complaint, seen by the Washington Post, did not specify what Telly allegedly said in his post, which was later deleted, but prompted local police to arrest him briefly. Telly then complained that he was being watched by men in his neighborhood and that he was receiving threats to his life through the post, according to a document he submitted to police. The tailor closed his business for several days until reopening this week. On Tuesday, Mohamed and Atari entered Telly’s shop, pretending to be customers before attacking him, police said. He was hacked several times and repeatedly stabbed in the neck, but was not beheaded, police said. Authorities in riot gear stormed a rally on Friday, removing hundreds of protesters by truck. “There is chaos, anarchy and no rule of law,” said Apoorvanand, a professor at the University of Delhi who has a name. “If we do not make a collective effort and reduce the temperature, then we are heading for disaster or we are already there.” Anant Gupta contributed to this report.
