Baghpat: Three teachers of an Islamic school in Baghpat town in Uttar Pradesh state were assaulted on a moving train on November 22 night when they were returning from Delhi.
“Why do you wear a rumaal (scarf),” one of their attackers allegedly shouted at the clerics.
The three were preparing to get off at their destination when six men in their coach bolted the exits and started beating them, even using an iron rod.
All three have suffered severe wounds and are being treated at the district hospital in Baghpat, some 50 km north of the national capital.
The police have not confirmed reports that they were thrown off the train.
One of the men, Israr, said when he asked the attackers why they were hitting him, “they said nothing and kept assaulting us.” One of the attackers said “rumaal kyon pehente ho,” apparently referring to the keffiyeh or scarf often worn by Muslim men.
“This has never happened before,” Israr said.
A senior police officer, Jai Prakash, suggested that it could have been a fight over seats, though no evidence so far backs this theory, reports ndtv.com.
Prakash said an assault case has been registered for now because the accused men have not been identified yet.
In June, 16-year-old Junaid Khan died and his cousins were wounded after an assault on a train near Delhi by a mob of 20 that shouted abuses and called them “anti-nationals” and “beef-eaters.”
The police had said that the dispute started over seats, and the man who argued with Junaid came back to the train with a mob from his village.
Baghpat is a district of Uttar Pradesh ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party.