A 15-year-old girl returning with her mother from the famous Mateshwar Dham Shiv mandir, district Saharsa has been abducted by Md. Firoz, Md. Nizam and others.

The incident occurred on Monday, 25 July around 9 PM. The ongoing Shravan (Sawan) month is considered one of the holiest in the Hindu calendar, and is dedicated to Bhagwan Shiva. Each Monday is celebrated as Shravan Somvar.

The distraught father of the girl lodged a complaint in Balwahat OP (Observation Post) against 4 accused. He runs a shop in the Mateshwar Dham temple complex. On Monday night, his wife and daughter were returning home from the temple. As soon as they approached a main road near their home, the accused men arrived in a Scorpio vehicle and started dragging his daughter inside.

When the mother protested, the accused started dragging her also into the vehicle. Screaming, she rushed towards her house to gather more people. But by then, the accused managed to get away after stuffing a cloth in the minor’s mouth.

The father fears that either his daughter will be killed, or raped and forced to convert her religion.

In 2020, a similar crime had taken place in Begusarai. A man was walking with his wife and minor daughter, when a group of Muslim men and women abducted the girl on gunpoint. One of the kidnappers told the father that had it been Pakistan, they would have taken the girl from the house itself. Later, an unknown man turned up at their house and demanded Rs. 2 lakh if they wanted the girl back, else she would be sold off in Bangladesh.

Such crimes are becoming increasingly commonplace in Bihar, as Islamists grow ever more emboldened. In another recent spine-chilling case from Begusarai, a mother and her married daughter were abducted in a Muslim majority village and sexually exploited for a long time. The entire family is being threatened to either convert or be killed. Hindu activists allege police is trying to cover up the matter.

In Darbhanga, Dharam Sahu was lynched by a mob when he confronted the Muslim man stalking his just-married niece. Dharam’s family says police has arrested only half the people they had identified as part of the mob and many murderers are roaming free.

Bajrang Dal leaders in north Bihar have said that police usually hesitate to act in such cases citing ‘communal nature’ of the crime. They say that the government has been appeasing Islamists, thereby emboldening them to brazenly indulge in crimes against Hindus.