In yet another case of murder of a Hindu leader, Vishva Hindu Parishad’s (VHP) Agra city unit vice-president Arun Kumar Mahaur, a Dalit, was on Thursday shot dead in broad daylight on the way back home after performing his daily prayers at a local temple. He was accosted by five assailants in a busy marketplace near his ancestral house in Mantola, one of whom pumped a bullet from a country-made gun into the back of his head from close range.
The victim’s brother named five persons — Shahrukh, Raja, Dilshad, Imtiyaz and Abid — as accused in the complaint filed at the Mantola police station. Mahaur’s brother Vinod Kumar, who was with the VHP man when he died, said Shahrukh and his associates attacked both of them without any provocation. “We were walking home from the temple, minding our own business when these people started hurling abuses and mocked my brother,” alleged Kumar. “Even before we could react, they pounced on us and while Shahrukh shot Arun in the head, his associates started beating me up.”
Police have registered a murder case against main accused Shahrukh and four others. As per latest reports Shahrukh, Raja, Imtiaz and Abid have been arrested, while Dilshad is still absconding.
Rampant Murders of Hindu Leaders and Activists
This incident is just the latest in a spree of murders and attacks on Hindu leaders and activisits. Below is a partial list of cases that highlights the severity of the problem, and the ground really that those who are painted as ‘fascist’ and ‘intolerant’ are acutally victims of a targeted campaign to silence and eliminate Hindu voices.
16 Feb 2016: PV Sujith, an RSS and BJP activist, was hacked in his home in Kannur, Kerala. This was just one in a long list of murders of Hindu activists in Kerala.
12 Feb 2016: BJP Bihar Vice-President Visheshwar Ohja was shot dead in Bhojpur, and earlier that same morning, another BJP leader Kedarnath Singh was shot dead in Chhapra.
9 Oct 2015: Prashant Poojari was hacked to death in Moodbidri, Karnataka for opposing cow slaughter.
June 2014: 3 BJP leaders (Vijay Pandit, Omveer Singh Fauji, Rakesh Rastogi) killed in U.P. within a span of 10 days, and several more murderously attacked, including BJP MP from Fatehpur, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti.
July 2014: BJP workers assaulted in Triupra by CPM cadre
20 July 2013: BJP state general secretary ‘auditor’ V Ramesh, 54, was hacked to death in Salem, Tamil Nadu. This came after the brutal murder of Hindu Munnani functionary Vellaiappan in Vellore.
[…] Hindu Parishad’s (VHP) Agra city vice-president Arun Kumar Mahaur, a Dalit, was shot dead in Feb 2016. His brother voiced out that he was killed for fighting against cow / cattle […]
[…] February this year, VHP leader in Agra, Arun Mahaur was murdered because he was trying to stop cow smuggling and slaughter. Last month in July, a gau […]
[…] were shot for trying to stop the criminal cattle traffickers, Dalit VHP leader Arun Kuma Mahaur was shot dead in Agra for opposing cow slaughter, and the brutal hacking of flower vendor and cow protection […]
[…] are under vicious attack in other parts of Bharat as well – the murder of Hindu Dalit leader Arun Kumar Mahaur in Agra, UP being just the latest incident of violent attacks in UP, […]