In Nawada, Bihar, 40-year-old Mohammad Athar Hussain died late Friday night while undergoing treatment for injuries sustained during a mob attack on December 5, reportedly targeted at him because of his religious identity.
Before his death, Athar recounted the assault. He said a group of 4 to 5 men forcibly stopped him, checked his pockets, dragged him into a room, and made him reveal his religious identity. They beat him with iron rods and sticks, broke his fingers, trampled him on the chest, and even poured petrol over his body in an attempt to burn him. He said the attackers used pliers to crush his feet, fingers, and ears, and struck him with bricks.
“Five men stopped me and started checking pockets, took me away in a room and locked me up, told me to open my pants to make sure I am a Muslim, and beat me and burnt my skin,” Athar said in a video. “They stood on my chest and trampled me upon. I was bleeding from my mouth, and they used bricks to beat me as well. Someone called the cops, and then I was taken away,” he added.
Athar, who had been selling clothes in Roh and the surrounding areas for nearly 20 years, was the sole breadwinner of his family. “I am the only breadwinner in my family; there is nobody to look after my family,” he told reporters before his death.
His wife, Shabnam Parveen, has filed a case naming 10 accused and 15 unidentified individuals. So far, police have arrested four suspects, Sonu Kumar, Ranjan Kumar, Sachin Kumar, and Shri Kumar, while the hunt for others continues. Roh police station in-charge Ranjan Kumar confirmed that the FIR was filed immediately after the attack and that the investigation is being conducted seriously.
This incident is part of a troubling pattern in Nawada, which has seen multiple mob lynching cases in 2025 alone, including the fatal beating of two youths in February and an attack on an elderly couple in August over witchcraft allegations.
