Islamists have been emboldened beyond all limits by the inaction and apathy of the secular Indian state. Not only are they beheading innocent civilians who merely expressed an opinion in support of beleaguered Nupur Sharma, now they have escalated to threatening minors who post in support of the victims of their jihadi hate.

A 16-year-old girl from Mumbai posted in support of Kanhaiyalal Teli, the tailor from Udaipur who was recently beheaded by two jihadis, after Kanhaiyalal’s Muslim neighbour painted a target on his back. Just for this, she received a death threat over a WhatsApp call from an unknown person.

The frightened girl informed her family and they lodged a complaint with Mumbai Police under IPC 506(2), 507 and 509.

Around one week before Kanhaiyalal’s murder, pharmacist Umesh Kolhe from Amravati was murdered as per a conspiracy hatched by his long-time Muslim veterinarian friend to whom he had extended financial help multiple times. Many others in Amravati are still receiving death threats for sharing posts against the Islamists baying for Nupur’s blood.

And what has the Indian state done as Islamists run amok? After initially covering up Umesh Kolhe’s death as robbery related, Amravati Police Commissioner was finally forced to admit that they knew all along that he was brutally murdered for sharing a post in support of Nupur. Two attempts were made on Umesh’s life in the two days preceding the day he was finally murdered, 21 June!

In Udaipur, police first arrested Kanhaiyalal after his Muslim neighbour lodged a complaint. Then they let him out and bail and claimed to have worked out a ‘compromise’ between both parties. Their advice to Kanhaiyalal was to ‘stay safe’ and his pleas for meaningnful police protection fell on deaf ears. The poor man kept his shop closed for days out of fear, but was brutally murdered as soon as he reopened the shop by two jihadis posing as customers.

The situation is no different in Nagpur, where an entire family had to flee after their younger son came on the local Islamist hit list. A Hindu man was assaulted in Bihar, and a Hindu activist and his two friends have been critically wounded in an attack in Karnataka’s Bagalkot, allegedly for the same reason: supporting Nupur i.e. protesting the unconstitutional demands to hang her.

It is fast becoming irrelevant for Hindu existence whether a state is BJP ruled or not. The secular state apparatus is thoroughly compromised and large sections of it are steeped in such Hinduphobia that ‘rule of law’ has become an empty slogan.