An attempt to forcefully convert a Hindu family to Islam has been reported from the Thiruvananthapuram district. Ayiroor police arrested a member of a 10-member gang for trespassing into the house of a young Hindu man who backed out of a marriage and refused to convert to Islam. The assailants attacked Nandu, his mother Shalini, and other relatives who were present in their house.
The Islamist mob beat up the family, ransacked the whole house, and destroyed property. Arshad (45) from Bismiya House, Varkala, was arrested on January 8 while the rest of the accused were in hiding. The arrest was made on the complaint that around 10 people attacked the house of Shalini, a resident of Hariharapuram, around midnight on January 7 with deadly weapons.
Shalini’s son Nandu was close to the Muslim woman, a native of Varkala. The girl’s relatives asked Nandu to marry her, and he agreed. They then asked him to convert to Islam, but the young man and his relatives refused, police said.
In the complaint Shalini said they withdrew from the marriage because Nandu was not ready to change his religion and get married. He also retreated from the proposal when he came to know it was the girl’s second marriage.
The Islamist mob tried to drag Nandu away and told Shalini that they were taking him to a mosque for conversion to Islam. When the family resisted, another relative of the Muslim girl came running toward them with a sword. Someone kicked Shalini in her stomach. Janam TV reported that police recovered a few weapons used in the attack.
Several household appliances and furniture were damaged in the attack. Arshad, the first accused and the girl’s relative, was arrested by the police. Ayiroor police have registered a case against 10 people, including the girl. It is alleged that she led the attack. Arshad was remanded, and local police intensified their search for other accused.
Varkala is a tiny hamlet on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram that has attracted pilgrims and tourists for a long time, and Ayiroor is a neighborhood. It has several tourist attractions, including a beautiful beach, a 2000-year-old Vishnu Temple, and the Sivagiri Mutt Ashram, a little distance from the beach.
A 2000-year-old shrine, the Janardhanaswamy Temple, stands on the cliffs overlooking the beach. The Sivagiri Ashram, founded by the great religious reformer and philosopher Sree Narayana Guru (1856 – 1928), is also close by. The Samadhi (the final resting place) of the Guru here attracts thousands of devotees annually during the Sivagiri Pilgrimage days – 30 December to 1 January.
Muslim fundamentalists have radicalized the whole region. Local media refused to run the story. The ones who did cover it, refused to name the accused and their nefarious attempts to convert the Hindu family to Islam forcefully, thereby downplaying this shocking incident. There is a real possibility that the radical Islamist attacks will continue until the Hindu family either caves in to their demands or flees from the region.
https://hindupost.in/crime/mob-attacks-hindu-family-in-varkala-for-refusing-to-convert-to-islam/
