A mob of around 200 people gathered last night at Vijay Chowk in Osmanabad, Maharashtra and pelted stones on vehicles and hoardings. Four policemen were injured while trying to bring the situation under control.

The mob was allegedly protesting an ‘objectionable’ Facebook post against Mughal tyrant Aurangzeb, a fanatical Muslim ruler who destroyed several Hindu temples and imposed the jaziya tax on non-Muslims.

The mob also damaged one police vehicle.

A case has been lodged against 43 named and 150-170 unnamed people under IPC Sections 307 (attempt to murder), 333 & 353 (assaulting a public official to stop him/her from performing his duty) and under laws to protect public property.

While Marxist historians have long white-washed the brutality of Muslim invaders like Mughals, in recent years there has been a concerted attempt to particularly whitewash Aurangzeb’s crimes by Audrey Truschke, a Hinduphobic American academic whose father-in-law is a Christian missionary.

Osmanabad derives its name from the last ruler of the princely state of Hyderabad, the 7th Nizam – Mir Osman Ali Khan. He had resisted merger with the Indian Union after partition and his close aide Qasim Rizvi raised a private militia, the Razakars, to terrorize the majority Hindu population of his state. The Nizam was finally forced to join Bharat after the Indian Army launched Operation Polo to invade and defeat his Army.

Rizvi was also the leader of the pro-Nizam party Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, which later became the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), today led by a dangerous Islamist, Asaduddin Owaisi. Although Osmanabad’s MLA and MP are both from Shiv Sena, AIMIM exercises considerable influence in minority-dominated pockets of Marthwada region of Maharashtra which borders Telangana.

(Featured image: Representative only)