Uttar Pradesh: Three Muslim clerics beaten up in train; Railway Police probing incident

Three Muslim clerics were allegedly beaten up by unidentified persons in a moving train in Baghpat leaving them injured, police said on Thursday. The ‘maulvis’, who boarded a passenger train at Delhi on Wednesday night, were on their way to their village in Baghpat when they had a tiff with some youth who allegedly beat them up, SP Baghpat Jaiprakash Singh said. [caption id=“attachment_4224185” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. AFP[/caption] NDTV quoted Israr as saying, “They said nothing and kept assaulting us”. Israr added that one of the attackers asked “rumaal kyon pehente ho? (Why do you wear a handkerchief?),” apparently referring to the scarf often worn by Muslim men. According to News 18 , the three men hailing from Aheda village in Baghpat were on their way back after a visit to the Markazi Masjid in Delhi, when they were attacked with rods. The victims and some of their supporters later got down at Amhaida station and lodged their protest against the incident and a case was registered against six unidentified persons at the Baghpat Kotwali police station, he said. “We were sitting on the upper berths and were about to reach our station. When we tried to get down, the people sitting on lower berths locked the doors and windows. When we asked them why they were locking the windows, they said “you will soon get to know” and started beating us,” Israr, one of the three clerics who is a teacher at a madrassa told News 18. It has also been alleged that the three ‘maulvis’— Gulzar, Israr and Abrar — were pushed out of  the train, but the police did not confirm it. Baghpat Kotwali in-charge B Kumar said that the case was being transferred to the Railway Police. With inputs from PTI