Captured on CCTV, Faridabad incident has fuelled Islamophobic conspiracy theory claims
www.independent.co.uk
Love jihad’ protests in India after video shows Hindu woman gunned down outside college
Captured on CCTV, Faridabad incident has fuelled Islamophobic conspiracy theory claims
Mayank Aggarwal
Delhi
@journomayank
1 day ago
Protests have erupted in
India over a graphic video showing a young
Muslim man gunning down a 21-year-old
Hindu woman in broad daylight outside her college campus.
The incident took place in the city of Faridabad in the northern state of
Haryana on Monday afternoon, police said. The victim, who has been identified as Nikita Tomar, was shot dead as she appeared to resist an attempted abduction.
Video of the incident was taken from CCTV footage of the street outside Aggarwal College in the Ballabgarh neighbourhood, and was widely shared on social media in India on Tuesday.
In the footage, a man can be seen approaching a group of three women next to a white car, before grabbing one of them and shooting her at point blank range as a second man runs towards him. Both men then get into the vehicle and flee the scene.
Haryana’s home minister Anil Vij, from the ruling Hindu nationalist BJP party, repeated the family’s “love jihad” claim and said he had promised a “quick investigation and time-bound trial to ensure justice to the family”. “No one will be spared,” he tweeted.
But Mr Vij has also come in for criticism for insensitivity when, after being asked about the safety of women in his state, he said the government “can’t ensure personal security for all 25 million (of its inhabitants)". He added: “I won’t say such incidents (crime against women) have stopped, but they have reduced for sure in the last few years.”
