NEW DELHI: Indian police Saturday said one person has been arrested after a mob stabbed a Muslim teenager to death on suspicion of carrying beef, an offense in many parts of the Hindu-majority country.
Cows are revered by Hindus and slaughtering them as well as possession or consumption of beef is banned in most Indian states, with some imposing life sentences for breaking the law.
Junaid Khan, 15, was traveling from New Delhi on Friday with three of his brothers when a fight erupted over seats.
Between 15 and 20 men pulled out knives and set upon the brothers while making anti-Muslim comments and insisting one of the packets they were carrying contained beef.
While Khan was stabbed to death, his brother Shakir sustained injuries on the throat, chest and hands, police said.
“The fight started over seats. We are looking into the matter and we have arrested one of the accused who is a 35-year-old old man from (northern state of) Haryana,” Ajay Kumar, a government railway police official told AFP.
Khan’s brother Hassem told reporters the mob ignored their repeated pleas that they were not carrying any beef.
“They were pointing at a packet which had food and saying we should not be allowed to sit since we were carrying beef,” Haseem said.
The incident is the latest such attack by Hindu vigilantes in India, where there have been a spate of assaults against Muslims and low-caste Dalits.
In the last two years, nearly a dozen Muslim men have been killed across the country on suspicion of eating beef or smuggling cows.
Critics say vigilantes have been emboldened by the election in 2014 of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party.
Last year Modi criticized the cow protection vigilantes and urged a crackdown against groups using religion as a cover for committing crimes.
India mob kills Muslim teen in beef row, one arrested
India mob kills Muslim teen in beef row, one arrested
With murals, Indian artist transforms slums into ‘walls of learning’
- Rouble Nagi won the $1 million Global Teacher Prize at Dubai summit last week
- Her foundation set up 800 learning centers across more than 100 slums, villages
New Delhi: It was about a decade ago that Rouble Nagi began painting the walls of Mumbai’s slums with art and colors, turning the neglected spaces where India’s low-income communities live into vibrancy.
What started as a project of beautification quickly transformed into a mission of education through art, one that seeks to reach the most marginalized children in India.
Together with a team of locals, volunteers and residents, Nagi started painting the slums with interactive murals, which she calls the “Living Walls of Learning,” as an alternative way to educate children.
“The ‘Living Walls of Learning’ is our answer to the lack of infrastructure within the education pillar. In these communities, traditional schools are often physically distant or psychologically intimidating. We solve this by turning the slum itself into a classroom,” Nagi told Arab News.
An estimated 236 million people, or nearly half of India’s urban population, lived in slums in 2020, according to World Bank data.
“The abandoned, broken or dilapidated walls (are transformed) into open-air classrooms using interactive murals created by the students themselves. These aren’t just paintings; they are visual curricula teaching literacy, numeracy, science and social responsibility,” she said, adding that the initiative “treats education as a living, breathing part of daily life.”
Her Rouble Nagi Art Foundation has established more than 800 learning centers across more than 100 slums and villages in India, as the slum transformation initiative expanded beyond Mumbai and now includes parts of Maharashtra, the country’s second-most populous state.
“These centers provide safe spaces for children to begin structured learning, receive remedial education, emotional support, and creative enrichment,” Nagi said.
Over the years, RNAF said that it had helped bring more than one million children into formal education and reduced dropout rates by more than 50 percent, with the help of more than 600 trained educators.
Last week, the 40-year-old Indian artist and educator became the 10th recipient of the $1 million Global Teacher Prize, which she accepted at the World Governments Summit in Dubai.
Nagi plans on using the money to build an institute that offers free vocational training and digital literacy.
“This project aims to equip (marginalized children and young people) with practical skills for employment and self-reliance, helping transform their life chances,” she said.
She believes that strengthening pathways from informal learning spaces to formal schooling and skill-based education can create “sustainable, long-term educational opportunities” that “empower learners to break cycles of poverty and become active contributors” to their communities.
“For me, this award is not just personal; it is a validation of the work done by the entire Rouble Nagi Art Foundation team, our teachers, volunteers and the communities we work with,” she said.
“It shines a global spotlight on children who are often invisible to the formal education system and affirms that creativity, compassion and persistence can transform lives.”
