World

India hit list of Hindu Muslim couples taken off Facebook

February 5, 2018 4:21 pm

A Facebook page calling for violence against 102 Muslim men who are allegedly in relationships with Hindu women has been taken down.

The page, which asks Hindus to “track and hunt the boys on the list”, prompted outrage online.

The list also included links to the Facebook profiles of those named, raising concerns about their safety.

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Although the page is named “Hindutva Varta” (Hindutva Talk), no Hindu right-wing group has owned up to it yet.

The list appeared on social media feeds over the weekend after a Twitter user called attention to it. “Hindu terrorists publish a long list of inter-community marriages and urge Hindus to kill the husbands of these women,” the tweet read.

While the page is no longer available, Indian website Alt News has archived a few of the posts, including the list but has blurred the names of the couples. All of the archived posts encourage violence against instances of so-called “love jihad”.

The term has been popularised by radical Hindu fringe groups who accuse Muslim men of participating in a conspiracy to turn Hindu women from their religion by seducing them.

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“It’s alarming that such a list exists in the first place,” Pratik Sinha, cofounder of Alt News, told the BBC. “But to think that someone has spent their time tracking down the names of people in such relationships is equally troubling.”