Hindu Villagers Attacked by Muslim Mafia in Birbhum, West Bengal
Suri: One person was killed and several were injured in a clash at several Hindu tribal-dominated villages in Birbhum’s Mohammad Bazaar, the heart of the stone mining belt, on Thursday. A Muslim mob, reportedly backed by the local stone crushers and mine owners (all Muslims), launched an attack on the Hindu villages early in the morning. The attack was reportedly in retaliation to the killing of a corrupt Muslim stone crusher supervisor on Monday. The Hindu villages have seen simmering tension for the past couple of months, with villagers alleging that poor tribals were exploited and their land snatched away by the Muslims in the stone-crushing industry. They had also been complaining that villagers were often injured during blasting in stone mines. Also, there has been rampant compalints of Hindu women being attacked and assaulted by Muslim activists along the whole mining belt in West Bengal and Jharkhand. On Monday night, a supervisor of a stone crushing unit, Basirul Seikh (50, an...