Indian police said Thursday they were still hunting for two men suspected of murdering a Muslim folk singer because his performance angered a Hindu priest, sparking communal tensions.
Adam Khan was murdered in late September in western Rajasthan state after the priest complained the singer’s rendition of a particular tune failed to invoke the spirit of a temple goddess. A group of men set upon the 45-year-old singer in Jaisalmer, breaking his instruments before beating him to death, police said.
Khan belonged to Manganyar caste, a largely Muslim community of folk singers from Rajasthan and neighbouring Pakistan. His relatives reported the murder to police despite warnings from the powerful Hindu community.
Nearly two dozen Muslim families have since fled the area, fearing retribution, in what police say is a dispute within India’s complex caste system.
One of the accused, Ramesh Suthar, was arrested in early October but two other suspected attackers remain on the run, police said.
“Several teams of police teams are working to arrest the accused. We will nab them soon,” Gaurav Yadav, Jaisalmer police chief, told AFP.
The Manganyar traditionally sing at Hindu temples, and are popular with tourists in the far western Thar desert region.
Yadav said the death has sown divisions between Hindus and Muslims, adding police were trying to persuade Muslim families that fled to return, assuring their protection, he added.
But the incident is the latest in a string of vigilante attacks by Hindu hardliners on the Muslim minority in western Rajasthan state ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.
In April, a Hindu mob killed a Muslim cattle trader in Alwar district after he was accused of smuggling cows for slaughter.
Cows are considered sacred by many Hindus and beef consumption is a flashpoint issue in Hindu-majority India.
Vigilantes raided a hotel in Rajasthan’s capital Jaipur in May after the owners were accused of serving beef. Critics of Modi’s ruling BJP say Hindu radicals have been emboldened since the party swept to power in 2014, with dozens of Muslims lynched by mobs across India.At least 200 Muslims have fled their village in Rajasthan after a Hindu priest and his friends were alleged to have killed a Muslim folk singer late last month, police said on Wednesday.
Trouble erupted in Dantal village near the India-Pakistan border on September 27, when a Hindu priest accused folk singer Ahmad Khan of making mistakes while reciting hymns to evoke a Hindu goddess.
Khan, 45, was a member of the Langa Manganiyar community that has been singing Hindu religious songs and spiritual verses in temples and at festivals for generations. The priest suggested changes to the hymn, leading to an argument.
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Police said the priest, Ramesh Suthar, and his friends then broke Khan’s musical instruments and killed him.
“The news of the murder triggered unrest between Hindus and Muslims who have been living together for generations,” said Gaurav Yadav, a senior police officer investigating the case.
He did not say how Khan was killed, but said Suthar had been arrested. The priest’s accomplices had fled, Yadav said.
Two of Suthar’s family members said he was in shock and refused to talk about the case.
Government authorities had sent paramilitary forces to the area but the Muslims, fearing clashes, refused to return home.Brutal lynching in India: Muslim bodybuilder killed over faith or gang rivalry?
“For one small mistake the Hindus killed my brother,” said Rakha Khan, the dead singer’s cousin. “We can’t live in the same village ever again.”
Rakha Khan said they had sought refuge in a school and that the state government office and other local authorities were providing them with food.
The attack is the latest in a series of incidents targeting the minority Muslim community in states ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party.
Since his Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in 2014, hardline Hindu groups and cow protection vigilantes have carried out numerous attacks on Muslims accused of eating beef or killing cows.
Many Hindus believe cows are sacred and killing them is banned in some states.
