- cross-posted to:
- bbc@rss.ponder.cat
- cross-posted to:
- bbc@rss.ponder.cat
The killing of a 15-year-old boy by a classmate last month has fuelled religious tensions in an Indian city, leaving one family grieving and the other shattered by the crime. On 16 August, Heena* learned her teenage son Zakir*, 15, had been accused of stabbing a classmate at their school in Udaipur, Rajasthan. Zakir allegedly pulled a knife from his backpack and attacked Devraj, a Hindu boy, who died in the hospital three days later. The incident sparked a stream of grief and anger as well as a conversation on how to deal with violence in classrooms. The state police denied any religious angle to the incident. “The students had an argument over notebooks which turned ugly,” investigating officer Chhagan Purohit told the BBC. But the incident set off a wave of religious violence. False rumours that Zakir, a Muslim, planned the killing against a Hindu boy went viral on WhatsApp, sparking protests in Udaipur with right-wing Hindu groups torching vehicles and chanting anti-Muslim slogans, leading to a curfew and internet shutdown.