Minor fight between 2 kids becomes a communal clash in Chhattisgarh's Bemetara, one Hindu youth killed, several injured

Case ID : 242df13 | Location : Bemetara, Chhattisgarh, India | Date of Incident : Fri, 7 April, 2023

Case ID : 242df13

Bemetara, Chhattisgarh, India

7 April, 2023

Minor fight between 2 kids becomes a communal clash in Chhattisgarh's Bemetara, one Hindu youth killed, several injured

Attack resulting in death

Communal clash/attack

Case Summary

A Hindu youth was attacked and killed with a sword by a Muslim mob in the Bemetara district of Chhattisgarh following a minor dispute between two schoolchildren. The incident took place in the Bemetara district’s Biranpur village of the Saja assembly constituency. A bicycle collision occurred between two school students in the two communities. As a result, the Muslim student hit the Hindu student. Soon, others present on the spot joined the fight and a Muslim teenager hit the hand of the Hindu student with a glass bottle. In this attack, the Hindu student’s hand was fractured, and this triggered communal violence. Hearing about the clash, more people arrived, the matter took a heated turn and then escalated into full-blown communal violence. Both sides started to attack each other with sticks and stones. During this, some sword-wielding Muslims broke into the house of one Ishwar Sahu and started to hit them with swords. They dragged Ishar Sahu’s 22-year-old son Bhuneshwar Sahu out of the house, brought him to a Muslim neighborhood, and killed him with swords. The clash resulted in the injuries of over a dozen people including police personnel. Jalil Khan, Nawab Khan, Rashid Khan, Baseer Khan, Shera Khan, Abdul Khan, Akbar Khan, Nazir Khan, Janab Mohammad, Ayub Khan, Aalim Khan, Shakeel Khan, Ismail Khan, Zaheed Khan, Kalam Khan, Anwar Khan, Hafiz Khan, and Amir Khan were accused for the murder of the Hindu youth. Police had arrested nine accused.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

Communal clash is a form of collective violence that involves clashes between groups belonging to different religious identities. For a communal clash between Hindus and non-Hindus to qualify as a religiously motivated hate crime, the trigger of the violence itself would have to be anti-Hindu in essence. For example, if there is a Hindu religious procession that comes under attack from a non-Hindu mob, and after the initial attack, Hindus retaliate in self-defence, leading to a communal clash between the two religious communities. While at a later stage, both communities are involved in the clash/violence, the initial trigger of the violence was by the non-Hindu mob against the Hindus and therefore, it could safely be termed as an anti-Hindu violence. Further, the trigger would also have to be religiously motivated. In the cited example, the attack by the non-Hindu mob was against a religious procession and therefore, can be concluded to be religiously motivated. In some cases, the trigger may be non-religious, however, it develops into religious violence against Hindus at a later stage. In such cases too, the foundational animosity towards Hindus becomes the motivating factor of the crime and therefore, it would be classified as a religiously motivated hate crime against Hindus. Under this category, cases where the attack led to the death of the Hindu victim/s would be documented. In this case, the trigger of the violence itself was non-communal. It was a fight between two children over a cricket match. However, as the incident escalated, it soon turned into a communal clash with Hindus and Muslims coming face to face. During the violence by the Muslim mob, a Hindu man was dragged out of his house and brought to a Muslim-dominated neighborhood where he was brutally murdered. It was, therefore, specifically an attack against Hindus driven by the Muslim mob, which led to the death of a Hindu and several Hindus being injured. Due to the religious nature of the violence, this is being classified as a religiously motivated hate crime.