The gruesome killings are fueling religious tensions in India

New Delhi (CNN) – Religious tensions are rising in India following the killing of a Hindu by two Muslim Assamese, and authorities are trying to stop the video of the brutal attack from spreading online.

Authorities in the western city of Udaipur in Rajasthan have announced a curfew and videos of the incident have gone viral on social media, sparking outrage across the country.

In one video, you can see two people starting to attack the victim. In another, two Muslim men plead guilty and claim to have beheaded a Hindu man. However, the victim had deep cuts all over his body, including cuts to the neck, but the head was not severed, state police told CNN Wednesday.

The Indian Home Ministry on Wednesday directed the National Intelligence Agency, the country’s main counter-terrorism task force, to investigate the case.

“The involvement of any organization and international affiliation will be fully investigated.” He said on Twitter.

Two suspects are said to have killed the victim tailor after a post appeared on his social media account in support of Nupur Sharma, the national spokesperson of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in India. , Rajasthan Police Officer Hawa Singh Kumaria told CNN on Wednesday.

The victim was arrested on June 12 for “inciting religious hatred” and was released on bail, Kumaria said.

Chief Minister Ashok Gelad wrote on Twitter on Tuesday that the two suspects have been detained and an investigation is underway.

State officials have sent more than 600 police officers to the area.

“This incident is very unfortunate,” Kumaria said during a news conference on Tuesday, before urging the public not to watch the videos.

“There will be tension. There will always be after an incident like this, but everything is under control,” he said.

The killing has rekindled the fire in an already tense situation between India’s Hindu majority and Muslim minority community, which makes up about 14% of India’s 1.3 billion people.
Azaduddin Owaisi, a legislator and leader of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen political party, condemned the killing and demanded “severe action” against the suspects.

“There can be no justification for that,” he wrote on Twitter on Tuesday. “Our party’s consistent position is to oppose this kind of violence. No one can take justice into their own hands.”

Rahul Gandhi, leader of the opposition Indian National Congress, said he was “deeply shocked” by the incident.

He wrote on Twitter that he could not tolerate atrocities committed in the name of religion. “We must unite to defeat hatred. I urge everyone to maintain peace and brotherhood.”

Tensions between Hindus and Muslims have been a constant throughout India’s modern history, erupting violently from time to time, but analysts and activists say relations have deteriorated since Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his BJP came to power on a Hindu nationalist platform in 2014.

Since then, the ruling party has been repeatedly accused by rights groups, activists and the opposition of inciting anti-Muslim sentiment.

The BJP said in a statement on its website earlier this month that the party respects all religions. “The BJP strongly condemns insulting religious figures of any religion,” it said.

Earlier this month, when at least 15 Muslim-majority countries condemned Sharma’s comments about the Prophet Muhammad, India rushed to curb the diplomatic downturn. The incident caused a stir among India’s key Arab trading partners and called for a boycott of Indian goods across the Persian Gulf.

Following the killing of two Muslim children in the eastern state of Jharkhand earlier this month, protests over his comments in India have turned deadly, with an investigation underway to determine who fired the deadly bullets.

The Sharma was suspended by the BJPAnd the Indian Ministry of External Affairs issued a statement saying that his comments “did not in any way reflect the views of the Government of India”.