A 27-year-old Muslim student, Rezaul Islam Mondal, was brutally assaulted on a Sealdah-bound train in West Bengal, allegedly by a group of 10-12 Hindutva extremists. The attackers reportedly beat him, pulled his beard, and threatened to throw him off the train, accusing him of being a “Bangladeshi.”
The incident, which took place near Payradanga station on Tuesday, has sparked statewide condemnation, with human rights groups, political leaders, and activists demanding immediate action against the perpetrators.
Rezaul, a final-year M.Tech student at Aliah University and a resident of Hooghly district’s Meshera village, was returning from the Bishwa Ijtema religious gathering in Bangladesh along with four friends. The group had boarded a local train from Gede station to Sealdah when the incident happened.
According to Rezaul, trouble began when a passenger asked him to remove his trolley bag from the luggage rack. He complied without protest, but soon after, a group of men attempted to force him out of his seat. When he resisted, they hurled communal slurs, calling him a “Bangladeshi.”
“A man named Ajay taunted me, saying, ‘What drove you out of Bangladesh? You’ve come to invade India,’” Rezaul told The Observer Post. “I told them I am an Indian citizen, but about a dozen people surrounded me and started attacking me.”
For nearly an hour, Rezaul was repeatedly punched and kicked. His cap was forcibly removed, his hair and beard were pulled, and he was subjected to verbal abuse. At one point, some attackers allegedly urged others to throw him off the moving train.
His friend, Sajid Mirza, attempted to record the assault but was threatened. “They snatched my phone and warned me that if I made a video, they would throw me off the train,” Sajid said. “They accused us of being uneducated militants destroying the country.”
After the attack, Rezaul sought medical treatment before attempting to lodge a complaint at Haripal police station. However, officers allegedly refused to register his case. He later approached the Sealdah Government Railway Police (GRP) on February 5, where his complaint was finally accepted.
A case has been filed under sections 115(2), 299, 351(2), and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), and railway police have launched an investigation. “We are looking into the matter, and appropriate legal action will be taken,” a police official said.
The attack has triggered widespread condemnation. Prominent lawyer and Left MP Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya linked the incident to growing communal polarization. “This is not an isolated case. Such acts are happening in states governed by RSS-backed politics,” he wrote on social media. “Over the past decade, West Bengal has been influenced by RSS ideology, fueling religious divisions. A strong secular movement is needed to break this cycle.”
ISF MLA Peerzada Nawsad Siddique questioned the attackers’ motives: “Was Rezaul assaulted simply because he wore a cap and had a beard? This cannot happen in a democracy.”
Human rights groups, including the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR), also condemned the attack. “This is just the tip of the iceberg. Political parties and sections of the media have turned the state into a communal battleground,” said APDR General Secretary Ranjit Sur.
Mohammad Kamruzzaman of the All Bengal Minority Youth Federation (ABMYF) pointed to a disturbing trend. “Muslim youth have been attacked on trains before. If no action is taken, such incidents will continue,” he warned.
Journalist and activist Moktar Hossain Mondal blamed communal narratives for escalating violence. “Years ago, people were shocked to hear about such attacks on minorities in trains. Now, it’s becoming disturbingly common,” he said.
