A Kashmiri trader has lodged an FIR with Doranda Police Station against a group of locals for allegedly thrashing him and his fellow traders, and forcing them to chant “Jai Sri Ram” and “Pakistan Murdabad”, police said on Saturday.
This is the second such incident reported in the Capital City in the past one month, police said.
The complainant, Riyaz Ahmed Wani, a Kashmiri trader, claimed in his complaint that he and his fellow traders have been facing such harassment by some youths in the city. They fear that more such incidents may occur in future if stern action was not taken against the perpetrators, Wani said. The officer in-charge of Doranda Police Station, Siddeshwar Mahtha said that investigation was underway to check if the accusations made by the complainant were true. Police have apprehended at least three suspects in connection with the case and they were being interrogated, he added.
“The complainant has accused some locals of thrashing him and his friends, and forcing them to chant Jai Sri Ram and Pakistan Murdabad,” said Mahtha. “This is only the version of the complainant. We will get to know more about the motive behind the attack after interrogating the apprehended suspects,” he added. The three suspects apprehended in this case are Deepak Jha, Tarun Kumar and Arvind Kumar, all residents of colonies close to Sujata Chowk in Ranchi, said police.
Several woollen traders, mostly from Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir, frequent Ranchi and other parts of Jharkhand with woollen garments between October and March. These traders have complained of repeated attempts at harassment by some locals during their stay in Ranchi lately.
Earlier this month, a similar incident was reported in Doranda locality of Ranchi where a few Kashmiri traders were beaten up by some locals and asked to return to their native state if they do not chant “Jai Sri Ram” and “Pakistan Murdabad”.
Some Kashmiri traders have said that many more such incidents occurred in different parts of the city since October. They have also admitted that this was the first time that they were being targeted and harassed by some locals during their stay in Jharkhand. A police official, requesting anonymity, said that jumping to conclusions only on the basis of accusations by a few men was not the right way to go about such cases. A thorough investigation, he said, was needed in order to find the real motive behind such attacks if at all they happened.
