Four members of a little-known Hindu outfit were arrested on Thursday for allegedly beating up two Kashmiri street vendors in Lucknow on Wednesday even as some passerby tried to rescue them.
The assault on the fruit sellers by the saffron-shirted activists has been widely condemned in the Hindu-majority country where the Feb. 14 killing in Kashmir of 40 paramilitary policemen by a young suicide bomber has stirred patriotic anger.
The attackers were members of the right-wing Vishwa Hindu Dal (VHD) group and their leader found no reason to apologise for the act.
“Yes, my workers beat them. After the attack on our army men with the help of Kashmiri jihadis, there is anger among the public,” the group’s president, Ambuj Nigam, told Reuters by telephone from Lucknow.
“The Kashmiris pelt stones at our soldiers and wave the Pakistani flag. Why should we tolerate that?”
Nigam said the two hawkers had looked “suspicious” so his members asked them for identity cards. His men had called the police but they had taken too long to arrive, he said.
“Sometimes, when the police are late, we have to take matters into our own hands,” he said.
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