Boycott call against minority community over ‘love jihad’

Jaipur : The minority community of a small village in Hanumangarh is facing a boycott after a boy from the community eloped with a Hindu girl.

The boycott has been called by a mahapanchayat, which was led by Hindu right wing supporters. They termed the incident as ‘love jihad’. The couple had eloped on March 13 and later, recovered and the youth arrested.

Supporters of the VHP and RSS from the surrounding villages gathered for a mahapanchayat on March 20 and announced a boycott of the local Muslims in the village named ‘Gudia’. The Tibbi police confirmed local leaders of Hindu right-wing groups took part in the mahasabha, which ended with a resolution of boycotting Muslims in day-to-day life and business matters.

“The couple eloped On March 13. A compliant in the matter was filed on March 17. Within two days, them back from Delhi and arrested the youth on March 19,” said Ishwar Anand, station house officer Tibbi said.

The man belonged to Gudia, a village, which comes under Tibbi police station area. The girl belonged to Khara Khera village, a nearby village. The incident irked the villagers as the girl’s wedding was to be held on March 14. “Though, the girl was brought back, they held a mahapanchayat,” said Anand.

At the mahapanchayat, speeches were made by the Hindu right-wing leaders to discourage such kinds of incidents happen again. The police has intervened and trying to pacify the two groups.

The nearby panchayat areas put efforts to ensure that the situation would not worsen. “Hindus and Muslims in the area live peacefully. No such incidents happens here. The Gudia village is some 30 kms from here. We have taken steps to ensure situation would not deteriorate. Now, as the girl back to her home, the situation is slowly turning normal,” Tibbi grampanchayat sarpanch Vishal Singh said.

Source : TOI