A Muslim cleric, Maulana Ishke Ahmad, was attacked in Gonda district of Uttar Pradesh in what appears to be a hate crime targeting his religious identity.
According to the FIR, the incident took place when Maulana Ahmad was returning home from Gonda Kacheri and stopped at Bhilahi Bazaar for tea. A group of youths allegedly surrounded him, snatched his skull cap, pulled his beard, and hurled communal slurs at him.
The cleric was then forced to chant religious slogans against his will. The attackers went further, threatening to make him eat pork, an act meant to deeply insult his faith. One of them allegedly said, “This mullah should be killed and thrown on the railway tracks.”
Terrified and outnumbered, Ahmad managed to escape and later narrated the ordeal to his family. The police complaint confirms that he was humiliated for his faith, assaulted physically, and threatened with death.
