An incident of assault has come forward from the Dharwad city of Karnataka when a group of men assaulted and harassed Muslim fruit sellers outside of the Hanuman temple. The video shows fruits thrown on the road and the vendor’s carts destroyed.
The short clip, which is being circulated on Twitter, shows a group of miscreants who are reportedly from the Sri Ram Sena group in Karnataka, harassing and destroying the carts of Muslim fruit vendors who were selling watermelons outside the Hanuman temple.
This comes just a day after several Hindu outfits in the state planned to “end the monopoly of Muslim fruit vendors” in Karnataka. Soon after the video was uploaded, many Twitter users slammed the vandals and criticized them for spreading hate in the country.
The footage shared on social media shows several men in saffron scarves pushing away fruit vendors, as a large crowd surrounds them. The men started throwing the watermelons on the grounds, which soon covered the road outside of the temple.
Media reports said that the police and authorities present outside of the temple did not intervene in the altercation, and did not make an effort to help the Muslim fruit vendors. No information regarding the launch of an investigation in the matter has been made yet.
Nearly a month ago, reports of Hindu groups demanding a ban on Muslim traders and vendors near temples were emerging from Karnataka. The Karnataka government, which is led by CM Basavaraj Bommai, has since defended this move, citing the Endowment Act of 2002.
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Earlier, the Karnataka government has also revised the loudspeaker rules in the state and had sent a notice to over 120 mosques to play the azaan as per the decibel level allowed by the government. The opposition parties have been calling this move by the government “anti-Muslim”.
