Udaipur: Indian police made fresh arrests in the case of the execution of a Hindu tailor in Rajasthan, a murder that stoked unease between the Hindu majority and Muslim minority, leading to a clampdown on protests and the internet to prevent tensions from escalating.
Police officials said on Saturday that two Muslim men based in the northwestern state were held for planning the tailor’s murder last week in his shop in Udaipur.
“We have now arrested the two masterminds, and previously we had arrested two men who committed the heinous crime,” said Prafulla Kumar, a senior police official based in Udaipur.
Kumar said internet services were being gradually restored, and security forces continued to be on alert following the murder, carried out by two Muslim men now under arrest who filmed the act and posted it online.
The perpetrators said the act was in response to the victim’s support for Nupur Sharma’s derogatory remarks about the Holy Prophet (PBUH). The victim, Kanhaiya Lal Teli, had allegedly put up a social media post supporting a former spokesperson for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party who made anti-Islam comments in May.
SC asks Nupur Sharma to apologize for blasphemous remarks
On Friday judges from the Supreme Court of India stated the ex-spokesperson, Nupur Sharma, must apologise to the whole nation after the remarks intensified religious fault lines in India, angered Islamic nations and triggered diplomatic strains.
In India, at least two demonstrators were killed in police fire during protests against Sharma’s comments.
Police in New Delhi arrested journalist Mohammed Zubair, a vocal critic of the Modi government, who had helped draw attention to Sharma’s remarks through his fact-checking website Alt News and on social media.
