More shots are fired and Mundashir falls to the ground. “He is dead!” a passerby shouts as people try to stop the bleeding from a wound in the teenager’s head. Mudassir later died at the hospital, one of two young men killed in the Ranchi conflict – the latest victims of a deeper religious divide between India’s majority Hindu population and the Muslim minority. The June 10 protest was one of many protests across the country after two former members of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) made derogatory remarks about the Prophet Muhammad. Mudassir’s mourning father, Parvez Alam, did not know who killed his teenage son, but in a police complaint accused police of “firing indiscriminately using AK-47s and pistols aimed at the Muslim mob.” He claimed that at least three other men were throwing bullets at protesters from the roof of the Shree Sankat Mochan Hanuman Hindu temple near where Mudassir was standing on the street. “Due to the shooting from the roof of the temple and by the police, a chaotic situation prevailed and a bullet hit my son in the head,” Alam said in his complaint. Ranchi Deputy Commissioner Chhavi Ranjan confirmed that Mudassir and another man, Sahil Ansari, were later found dead at the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences from “bullet wounds” sustained during the protest. Ansari’s father, Mohammad Afzal, told CNN that his 20-year-old son was returning home from work selling cell phones in the market when “police opened fire”. Ranjan said “police opened fire because the mob was violent and the first shots were fired by the mob”, but did not comment on who the mob was referring to, saying the matter was under investigation. Amol Homkar, Jharkhand Police Inspector General, said a two-member commission had been set up to investigate the incident and a special investigation team from Ranchi police was also conducting an investigation. Homkar said 12 people were injured during the protest and 30 were arrested in recent days, although he did not specify any charges. CNN examined footage of the demonstration, which sometimes showed police firing indiscriminately at protesters, none of whom – including Mudassir – appeared to be carrying firearms. The boy’s father says he wants answers. “I lost my only child to this violence,” Alam said. “He was only 15, not even an adult.”
The shooting
Father and son were working on the family fruit counter on Mahatma Gandhi Main Road, a main road through Ranchi, when protesters gathered after Friday prayers, Alam told CNN. “I was removing the fruit stand to avoid damage due to protests,” he said. “Mudashir was helping me.” Alam described his son as a “very kind boy” who, like many teenagers his age, enjoyed making TikTok videos and taking pictures on his cell phone. In a report to Ranchi police two days after his son’s death, Alam said he saw a “mob” from the “Muslim community” moving north along the main road and when they arrived at the Shree Sankat Mochan temple. Hanuman, Mudassir joined them. Alam claimed that the men standing on the roof of the temple started throwing stones at the protesters and shot at the crowd. Video from inside the Shree Sankat Mochan Hanuman Temple, verified by CNN, shows many people sheltering on the ground floor, including police officers. Over the sound of missiles hitting the building, the voice of a panicked woman says: “Everyone is throwing stones at the temple. The administration is trying to stop it … but they can’t.” Through the security screens of the temple, protesters can be seen throwing stones. Another video shows crowds outside, throwing stones at the temple before shots are fired. It is not clear who is shooting, but the crowd seems to be dragging an unknown man whose white clothes look stained with blood. Towards the end of the video, police with guns appear to be walking towards the Muslim protesters, who have retreated from their positions outside the temple. According to India’s Code of Criminal Procedure, police can use “violence” to disperse what they consider to be an illegal gathering. Irfan Ansari, a Muslim lawmaker from India’s Congress party, which is part of the ruling coalition in the state, questioned why police fired shots at the crowd and said he would demand that the prime minister order a judicial inquiry. “The Ranch incident has shamed the state,” Ansari wrote on Twitter. “It is the job of the police to protect, not to shoot.”
Muslims feel targeted
Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP came to power in 2014, Muslims say they have been treated unfairly by a government committed to policies that favor Hindus. India’s 220 million Muslim population is much larger in a country of 1.4 billion, and while India claims to be a secular country, many Muslims say they live in fear. Recent comments by former BJP spokesmen about the Prophet Muhammad have not only angered Muslims in India. At least 15 Muslim-majority nations have condemned the comments and some have called for a diplomatic response from Indian ambassadors. Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar told the town hall held by CNN News-18’s subsidiary on Saturday that the comments did not reflect the BJP’s views. “What was said was not the position of the party. The party made it very clear and took action,” Jaishankar said. “Some countries have been concerned about this. They are dealing with us, we are their image for India. The countries that have been concerned feel that this was not the government’s position,” he added. However, high-level diplomacy has failed to quell anger in the streets of India, where the comments have sparked protests in many major cities. In some places, Muslims say they have been targeted because they speak openly. Activists in the BJP-run northern state of Uttar Pradesh, ruled by Hindu politician Yogi Adityanath, have accused authorities of punishing Muslims who allegedly took part in protests by destroying their homes. Authorities opposed the protest with all available police forces, special services and the army. “ However, the victims told CNN that only Muslim homes had been destroyed and that no warning had been given before their property was demolished. In a statement last week, Amnesty accused the Indian government of “selectively and violently suppressing Muslims who dare to speak out and express their dissent peacefully against the discrimination they face.” Aakar Patel, President of the Amnesty International Council for India, told CNN that the authorities “are violating Indian law and obligations under various treaties signed by the country”. “What India is doing is not doing justice, it is targeting Muslims, it is targeting their homes, it is even shooting them all under the pretext that it is trying to ensure that there is no violence on the streets,” he said. CNN contacted Adityanath’s office but received no response. In a June 11 tweet, his media adviser shared on Twitter a photo of a yellow bulldozer demolishing a property, writing: “Remember, every Friday is followed by a Saturday.”
The family asks for answers
At the family’s simple home in Ranchi last Wednesday, women surrounded Mudassir’s grieving mother, Nikhat Parveen, wiping tears from her eyes as she wept.
Parveen told CNN that Mudassir called her after he finished helping his father say he would return home. “He put down his phone and then he died,” Parveen said.
She said that her son was waiting for the results of the exams in high school and on Tuesday, they found out that he was awarded A directly for five of the six courses of the 10th year.
“He would tell me, ‘I will find a public job.’ “I will go far in life,” Parveen said.
“He was incredibly smart … everyone loved him. He’s not here today and everyone has tears in their eyes.”
His father, Alam, said police had so far thwarted his efforts to file an FIR – a First Information Report – needed to launch a formal investigation.
“We have tried to take legal action, but the authorities are not cooperating,” he said. “We lodged a complaint with the police, but they did not record it.”
Homkar declined to comment on Alam’s allegation and other allegations, pending the outcome of the investigation.
Alam said his son’s death stole his family’s future.
“I am (a) poor worker, my son and I (now dead) were selling fruits and vegetables. He was the only son and the future of my family,” he wrote in a complaint to police.
Mudassir’s mother asked why shots had to be fired on a busy street where there were children, such as her son.
“Does anyone have the right to do that? The police or anyone else has the right to shoot like that?”
When asked what he wanted from the police, he said firmly: “I want justice for my son.”
CNN’s Arpit Goel and Teele Rebane contributed to this report.
