Hindu outfit members call Ghaziabad slum dwellers ‘Bangladeshi’; vandalise jhuggis, burn their belongings

A right-wing group, Hindu Raksha Dal, on Friday allegedly thrashed several slum dwellers near a railway station in Ghaziabad, said police, adding that the victims were accused of being “Bangladeshi”.

Police arrested Hindu Raksha Dal chief Pinky Chaudhary and another man who accompanied him during the attack. Ajay Kumar Mishra, Commissioner of Police, Ghaziabad, told The Indian Express that the attackers have been booked under the stringent National Security Act.

Rajvati, 47, a resident of the slum cluster near Guldhar railway station in Madhuban Bapudham, was one of the victims of the assault. “I was cooking outside my hut when a group of people suddenly appeared and began attacking us with wooden sticks,” she described as quoted by the publication.

The ACP said Pinky Chaudhary, along with his 15-20 supporters, destroyed the jhuggis in the area. As per the preliminary investigation, police found no evidence proving that these people belong to Bangladesh.

“I saw the group members stopping a man and asking him his name. When he said that his name was Rehan, they started beating him up. They called him a Bangladeshi and accused him of committing atrocities against Hindus,” another eyewitness told The Indian Express.

Sub-inspector Sanjeev Kumar has filed an FIR at Madhuban Bapudham police station under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. The charges include Section 191(2) for rioting, Section 354 for acts intended to make a person believe they are the object of divine displeasure, Section 115(2) for voluntarily causing injury, Section 117(4) for causing grievous harm, Section 299 for outraging religious sentiments, and Section 324(5) for damage to public property.

The incident came after a video released by Pinky Chaudhary, in which he threatened to target Bangladeshis in India if the government did not act within 24 hours. This threat comes amid Bangladesh's severe political crisis, which has seen the resignation and fleeing of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina after violent protests.