Junaid’s Lynching : Silent protest in Lucknow to condemn targeted lynching of Muslims across India / protest demanded strict action against guilty !!!

(Pi Bureau)

Lucknow :   As part of the several Citizens Silent Protests (#notinmyname) being organized in different parts of the country against the targeted lynching of Muslims, citizens in Lucknow also came together on 28th June, 2017 at the Gandhi Pratima, GPO. The silent protest by citizenry was to condemn the targeted lynching of Muslims, the latest being of 16 year old Junaid on 23 June 2017 in Delhi (NCR) on a suburban train. Junaid was killed in public view inside a train where ordinary people were travelling to their respective destinations. Junaid and his three brothers were returning after shopping for Eid. The attackers were calling them ‘beef eaters’ and taunted for their appearance. The attack happened mainly due to their appearance as Muslim fellows. What is shocking is the involvement of ordinary people in this incident. It was also learnt from newspaper reports that the CCTV recordings at the railway station have been tampered with that there is much silence about the incident with hardly anyone coming forward to talk about what happened on that fateful day. We, as the citizens in Lucknow, stand with the family of Junaid and pray for his brother who has been stabbed and is in serious condition. We demand a high level probe and immediate arrests of all those guilty. We demand ban on cow vigilante outfits whose soul aim is to terrorise and extort money. We are extremely worried about the stoic silence of the State, political parties and general public on the series of violent incidences of hate crimes. We demand strict action to be taken by the State against hate crimes. We also demand that upholding the Constitution, the State should take affirmative action to promote peace and communal harmony that has been the ethos of India.