‘Hindus have changed’: A sleepy Indian state becomes anti-Muslim tinderbox
The last thing that Shahin Ahmed, 38, remembers of his brother, Alfeshani Ahmed, was a frantic call with him amid gunshots and screams.
At about 9pm on October 6, Alfeshani, a 36-year-old owner of a smartphone and electronic accessories shop, had just hastily shut his shop in the Kadamtala market to rush back home to Jher Jheri, a Muslim-majority village over three kilometres (about 2 miles) away in North Tripura, a district in northeast India.
A mob was running riot in the market, and Ahmed knew his shop wouldn’t be spared. “So, he left the shop, taking only the account ledger of his shop containing all his financial transactions and records,” Ahmed said.
Tension had previously flared in the early hours of the day between the local Hindus and Muslims in the area after a Muslim driver of a car refused to pay a subscription to a local Hindu club for Durga Puja, a major Hindu festival. The driver and a passenger, both Muslims, were also allegedly assaulted by the members of the club.
The Kadamtala subdivision, which includes the market as well, has a mixed population of Hindus and Muslims, with Hindus forming more than 64 percent of the population and Muslims accounting for nearly 35 perent. Muslims, the state’s largest minority group, also make up about 9 percent of Tripura’s population of 3.6 million.
Muslims in Kadamtala and the adjoining areas in the Hindu-majority North Tripura have traditionally paid subscriptions to Durga Puja celebrations as a sign of harmony between Hindus and Muslims. Manik Saha, the state’s chief minister, had previously warned groups against forcefully seeking the payment of subscriptions for Durga Puja.
The situation, on October 6, however, snowballed by the evening, as Hindu and Muslim groups clashed, leading to the heavy deployment of security personnel. The police baton-charged the mobs and opened fire, according to reports.
Seventeen people, mostly police personnel, were injured in the communal clashes and one person died.
It was Alfeshani. “He was on the phone with me when a bullet hit him on the head,” Shahin Ahmed, Alfeshani’s brother, told Al Jazeera.
Bhanupada Chakraborty, who was North Tripura district’s superintendent of police at that time, however, said that police did not target anyone specifically, and Alfeshani’s cause of death is “under investigation”.
His family, however, dispute the police’s version. “He was shot in the head by the police,” Alifjaan Begum, Alfeshani’s mother, said, welling up. “The fire in my heart will never be doused. It was a murder.”
