One person, Dharmendra Shinde (25), was killed and several others injured when a Muslim mob launched an attack on a Dalit wedding procession passing in front of a mosque, in Dewas, MP.

The attack occurred in Pipalarwan town at 9 pm on Wednesday, in the Congress-ruled state. It happened right opposite a police station, and the panic-stricken Hindus were assaulted by the mob within the police station premises as well when they tried to take shelter there.

Quoting from a FirstPost report –

“It was all quite sudden. The wedding procession of Shaktiman, who is from Awalataj village of Dewas district, was on its way to the bride’s home. When it was passing in front of a masjid, some people started pelting stones on us, injuring several baaraatis in the attack. This happened right outside the local police station. So a few of us approached the cops for help,” said Rajesh Malviya, a resident of Shujalpur who was part of the procession and sustained injuries in the attack.

The alleged attack was so aggressive that the person who died was killed on the spot after a large stone hit him on the head. The deceased has been identified as Dharmendra Shinde.

Dalit activist Deepak Vaishnav, who was present at the spot, said, “Shinde was trying to intervene, asking the mob to calm down. He was actually trying to understand the reason behind their anger, but they appeared in no mood to heed his pleas and attacked him.”

Another local Dalit activist, Manoj Parmar, said, “The groom belongs to the Ravidas community. We don’t know who exactly carried out this attack and why. The miscreants threw large stones at us. More than 10 people sustained injuries; two among these were grievously wounded.”

The two seriously injured have been identified as Rajesh Malviya and Ajay Ashtay.

…According to the police, the procession party took shelter at the police station after the attack was mounted. A policeman confirmed that the mob tried to beat the procession members within the police station’s premises, and hence, personnel had to use mild force to disperse the attackers.”

Dharmendra Shinde leaves behind a wife and two young children. We could not find a single photo of his despite browsing through several reports.

FirstPost has called this a ‘freak incident’ which ‘briefly’ flared up communal tensions. But when a Mohammed Akhlaq is killed after he allegedly steals & murders a calf in Dadri, the same media presents the incident as a pre-planned, cold-blooded murder and places collective responsibility on all Hindus.

Was this really a minor, ‘freak’ incident? One glance at the Dewas edition of the local newspaper Nai Dunia tells us it’s anything but.

Nai Dunia has been covering the communal attack repeatedly for the last 6 days, and till Sunday, locals had closed the market and were out in large numbers demanding immediate arrest of all accused and adequate compensation for Dharmendra Shinde’s family and the other injured.

Police had lodged a complaint against 11 people from each side, and out of the 11 accused of murdering Dharmendra Shinde only 4 have been arrested thus far.

Dainik Bhaskar tells us that there had been clashes due to wedding processions passing in front of the same Pipalrawan mosque 4-5 times earlier as well. Locals were upset that police had not taken adequate precaution this time. State minister Sajjan Singh Verma handed a cheque of Rs. 4,12,500 to Dharmendra Shinde’s family. Later, addressing a peace committee meeting (boycotted by one side), Verma asked for Ganga-Jamuna tehzeeb (the dubious ‘composite culture’ theory favored by Marxist historians) to be strengthened and for people to live harmoniously.

The dispute apparently arose because local Muslims asked for the DJ loudspeaker of the wedding procession to be turned off as it passed in front of the mosque. When the wedding party continued dancing, the Muslims started pelting stones from the roof of the mosque.

It’s a stunning irony of contemporary Bharat that those who openly violate all sound pollution norms and court orders by blaring the Muslim call to prayer 5 times a day from loudspeakers, can’t tolerate a loud wedding or festival procession of another community merely passing by in front of their religious places. Dancing in a baraat (wedding procession) to loud music has become a norm in most parts of Bharat – we have all grown accustomed to this, just like we have adjusted to various other realities of public life in a densely populated country. But why do Dalits, often held up as victims of Hindu orthodoxy by left-liberals, not get the same hearing when they are oppressed by the Muslim ‘minority’? Why are Muslims not counselled to make concessions to socially deprived Hindu groups?

Why is it that any Hindu festivity or celebration becomes a cause of conflict when passing through a Muslim area, and the same friction just doesn’t take place between Hindus and other minorities like Jains, Buddhists, Sikhs etc.? Who really is in need of the tolerance lecture that our Nehruvian elites have been giving to Hindu society for the last 5 years?

Incidentally, another ‘freak’ incident of communal rioting was reported from Congress-ruled Madhya Pradesh on the same Wednesday. VHP leader Lakhan Singh Jadhav was badly injured by some Muslim youth near Bakra Bazaar in Badnawar, Dhar district. The disturbance soon spread, shops were set on fire and incidents of stone pelting (including on police) and sword attacks were reported from other spots. BJP leader Rajendra Saraff, one policeman and 9 others were injured. Administration was forced to order Section 144 curfew in the town.

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