Gayur Hassan’s Hindu neighbours came at night, throwing stones at his family’s home in a northern Indian village and setting his workshop on fire. All because his son “liked” a social media post. The Facebook post that Hassan’s 19-year-old son endorsed had denounced the targeting of India’s Muslim minority since the nation of 1.3 billion went into a coronavirus lockdown in late March. According to the police who arrested two men, his family was threatened with further retribution unless they shaved off their beards and stopped wearing skull caps. “My forefathers lived here and I was born here,” Hassan, 55, told by phone from Keorak, their village where a dozen Muslim families live among about 150 Hindu households.

Source: The Express Tribune May 06, 2020 18:45 UTC