No one can think that playing cricket can be an offensive act and can result in an attack. A Muslim family in Bhondsi (Gurgaon) was attacked by a mob on Holi for doing nothing but playing cricket outside their (mob’s) residence.
As per the sources, six to seven allegedly drunk people asked Sajid (one of the victim) not to play cricket here, they said ‘Go to Pakistan and play’, and then slapped him. Later that evening, the men were then joined by more people and attacked the family when they continued to play cricket.
Daanishtha Siddique, a 21-year-old girl who filmed the entire incident was earlier in the kitchen preparing food for her family on Holi around 5-5:30 pm when she heard the noises and abuses coming from downstairs. She looked out and saw that her family was being battered by the mob with hockey sticks, iron rods and water pipes. Her father and brother moaned with pain and wailed for help and asked Daanishtha and her sisters to get inside the house. They kept hitting the entire family for around 30 minutes or longer with no mercy until they lost consciousness. The mob even pelted stones at their house and shouted, ‘Pakistani hain ye’ (They are Pakistanis). The mob did not stop here, they even barged into the house, opened the cupboard and took away Rs.25000 cash and some gold.
As per reports, Daanishtha helped her father move upstairs safely and then soon rushed to the terrace and started filming the entire incident from her phone even while facing abuses and threats herself as the attackers struggled to reach her and then the group shouted, ‘Iss ladki ko pakdo’ (get this girl) but the courageous girl realized that the video would play a major role when she has to prove anything against the perpetrators and hid her phone as quickly as possible.
The video has luckily gone viral and police caught six people based on the video which was shot by Daanishtha, the police have made one official arrest so far, the culprit is identified as 24-year-old Mahesh Kumar. The family acclaimed that the attackers had left when police arrived.
This is one of the most inhuman act one can perform, shows that after so much of awareness, there are still many people out there who always keep so much hatred in their heart for the Muslim community, they label them as a terrorist because they are Muslims and because of this; they do not even scruple before doing something sinful like this. The mob slapped a four-year-old kid and threw a one-year-old on a bed. One child woke up crying on the very next day and asked his father if they are coming again to hit them. His father had no answer.
Holi is the festival of colours, celebrated to welcome the spring season and it should be played with natural colours not with the colour of blood, hatred and anger. The people must understand the difference between terrorists and Muslims and must understand that the term terrorist has nothing to do with Muslim Community and we as a citizen of India must treat people from minority communities as a human instead of terrorists, we should give them equal respect instead of attacking them and we should make them feel at home, we should make them feel safe here, they too have equal rights as any other religion.