Yesterday, an engineering student Laraib Hashmi attacked a bus conductor called Harikesh Vishwakarma in Prayagraj, over a non specified issue.  Laraib later made a video of himself boasting about this action on a video which went viral, and openly confessed to attacking Harikesh with a cleaver.  Laraib also stated the reason why he carried out this attack, and there was an eerie similarity between this and the murder of Kanhaya Lal in Udaipur last year.  Both were carried out allegedly for blasphemy against Prophet Mohammad, and both were followed up by videos from the attackers.  In the case of Harikesh, he is seriously injured and fighting for his life at the hospital, while Kanhaya Kumar was killed on the spot.

While this similarity behind the two incidents has been picked up by many people, there is another detail in the video which is equally sinister, if not more. When Laraib confesses to the attack, this boy from UP suddenly switches to speaking Punjabi with an accent from Southern Pakistan in the video. He then mentioned he was a follower of Khadim Rizvi, a fire brand radical cleric who was famous for his abusive language towards whoever was committing blasphemy as per his opinion.  Khadim Rizvi, who passed away during COVID 2 years ago, was the leader of his own militant / political party called Tehreek e Labbaik.  His party gained momentum around the murder of former Governor of Punjab Salman Taseer who was killed by his personal guard for blasphemy.  The ISI sponsored Khadim Rizvi who has millions of followers in Pakistan, would openly call for murder of non Muslims including Shias and Ahmedias.  He would also use very aggressive language calling for mass murders, piles of dead bodies, labelling those who didn’t want to openly engage in sword Jihad against non Muslims as cowards and ‘Na Mard’.  Tehrik e Labbaik actually belongs to the Sunni Barelvi school of thought, which has always propagated peace for conversion, who are followers of Mazars and Dargahs.

In the video, Laraib also mentions being the follower of ‘Ghareeb Nawaz’ another moniker used for Khawaja Moinuddin Chishti of the Ajmer Dargah.  For decades the Barelvi Muslims were able to keep the facade of being soulful, peaceful Muslims, while in fact they have always been the gatekeepers for invaders.  However, this facade was broken last year with the brutal murder of Kanhaya Lal, and now any remaining doubts should be cleared with the attack on Harikesh.

Another person who Laraib mentions in his alarmingly clear and precise diatribe, is that of ‘Hazrat Khalid Bin Waleed’.  Khalid was one of the accomplices of Prophet Muhammed, who was a famous military commander for the Quresh tribe before he converted into Islam.  Khalid was nicknamed Saifullah (Sword of Allah) for being a brutal militant.  One of the many misadventures of Khalid was the mass murder of a tribe of Sabians (Those who follow the stars).  As part of his missions to convert non Muslims to Islam, Khalid was sent to these Bedouin tribes. Many of the tribe members accepted the offer made by Khalid and converted to Islam. However Khalid suspected that they were converting for money and affiliation only.  He got angry, tied them up and killed around 350 members of the Bedouin tribe Banu Jadhimah, after he sensed their conversion to be a trick.  The matter became a source of bad reputation of Prophet Muhammad and his accomplices to all the other surrounding tribes.  Finally it had to be settled by paying Qisas Diyat (blood money) to all the families whose kin were murdered by Khalid and his men, as well as to the remaining members of the tribe to placate them.  This incident is narrated in Sirat Rasul Allah (Life of Muhammad) by Ibn Ishaq, as well as that of a later Muslim Scholar Ibn Sa’d in his book “Kitab al-tabaqat al-kabir”.

Khalid was also responsible for killing a person who abused the  Prophet. According to Al-Shifa by Qazi Ayaz, Vol. II, page 284 Urdu Translation, the Prophet said to Sahaba, ‘Who will kill this person?’ On this Khalid Ibn Walid said, ‘I will kill him.’ The Prophet ordered him and he killed him.

The blatant attack on a Hindu person in the name of blasphemy, and the blunt video confession released immediately after this act should cause much alarm, and measures must be taken to contain this trend soon as possible.

DISCLAIMER: The author is solely responsible for the views expressed in this article. The author carries the responsibility for citing and/or licensing of images utilized within the text.