Three Muslim clerics beaten for ‘covering their heads’ in India

Three Muslims clerics were allegedly attacked with sharp objects by unknown men for covering their heads in Uttar Pradesh's Baghpat district on Thursday, reported Indian media.

The three men, identified as Gulzar, Israr and Abrar, were getting off a train when they were attacked by six to seven men, reported ANI. The attack occurred after the men quarreled over Muslim men covering heads. There were also reports that the clerics were pushed off the throw, but the police did not confirm it.

As a result, the three men were shifted to a nearby hospital for medical treatment.

The three clerics started wearing their shoes to get off at village Aheda in Baghpat when men attacked them with iron rods and an ice pick.

“The police have registered an FIR against the unidentified attackers,” Northern Railway’s public relations officer Nitin Chaudhary told ANI.

In May, two Muslim men were killed after they were attacked by Indian villagers who suspected them of stealing cows, police said Monday, the latest such attack over the animal Hindus consider sacred.

Police in the northeastern state of Assam said they had registered a murder case over the deaths of Abu Hanifa and Riyazuddin Ali, who were beaten with sticks on Sunday. Two suspects have been detained for questioning.

Mob in India kills two Muslims over suspected cow theft

Two Muslim men have died after they were attacked by Indian villagers

"They were chased and beaten with sticks by villagers who said the two boys were trying to steal cows from their grazing field," Debaraj Upadhyay, Nagaon´s top cop, told AFP by telephone.

"By the time we took them to the hospital at night they had succumbed to their injuries," he added.

The incident comes amidst a wave of rising tensions over the killing and smuggling of cows in Hindu-majority India, where the animal is considered sacred and its slaughter is a punishable offence in many states.