Kashmiri vendor manhandled by mob at craft fair in Kurukshetra, FIR registered

KURUKSHETRA: A Kashmiri vendor was allegedly manhandled by a group of men during the ongoing International Gita Festival here, prompting police to register an FIR in the matter, officials said on Monday.

The incident took place on Saturday when the vendor from Srinagar was allegedly manhandled by a group of men who were holding saffron flags in their hands and walking past various stalls, they said.

Several craftspersons drawn from around the country have put up their stalls at the Craft Mela of International Gita Jayanti Mahotsav-2024 which have been allotted by the authorities here.

The Craft Mela is being organised on the periphery of holy Brahmasarovar here.

The incident went viral on social media, in which it can be seen how a group of men holding saffron flags and chanting slogans enter the stall and one of them manhandles the vendor and others start throwing the items away.

A few locals came to the rescue of the stall owner immediately to help him arrange the items and to condemn the act.

The police on Tuesday said an FIR under relevant provisions of the law including rioting and criminal intimidation has been registered in connection with the incident.

In his police complaint, the vendor said, “On Saturday, a group of 30 to 40 men came and started shouting slogans and called me a Bangladeshi.”

“They started shouting slogans to remove shops of Muslims, while throwing our items. They also thrashed me with sticks…they also made announcements not to buy products from Muslims,” the vendor alleged.

Kurukshetra SHO Dinesh Singh on Tuesday said that an investigation into the matter is going on and police will go through the CCTV footage of the area.

He said that of the total of over 600 stalls the security has been enhanced at over 50 stalls of the vendors from minority communities to avoid any such happening again. (PTI)