A Muslim man was allegedly attacked by a group of people at a village near Tamil Nadu’s Nagapattinam for uploading a picture of himself consuming beef.
Four people have been arrested in this connection, police told PTI.
Mohammed Faisan (24) of Poravachery had posted the picture on Facebook on Thursday with the caption, “You can say a thousand things, but beef curry is beef curry”.
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Police said that a group of people went to Faisan’s house Thursday night and questioned him. After a quarrel, they attacked him, police added.
Faisan was injured and admitted to the government hospital.
On the orders of district Superintendent of Police TK Rajasekaran, Kilvelur police registered a case and arrested four people Friday — Dinesh Kumar (28), Agathian (29), Ganesh kumar (27) and Mohankumar (28).
Police have registered cases under various IPC sections including attempt to murder.
Faisan, speaking from a bed in the Nagapattinam government hospital, said that his attackers belonged to the Hindu Munnani, according to The News Minute.
“After my Facebook post on the beef curry, some members of the Hindu Makkal Katchi opposed it,” he was quoted as saying in the report.
“They yelled at me saying I can’t eat beef curry. But I insisted it was my right. They then took sickles and rods to beat me,” he added.
After news of the attack broke, #Beef4life, #WeLoveBeef and #BeefForLife became the top trends on Twitter, as hundreds of people, especially from Tamil Nadu, began tweeting in support of the freedom to eat beef.
Tamil Nadu has previously also created Twitter trends to oppose Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the state. #GoBackModi and #GoBackSadistModi had topped Twitter trends ahead of Modi’s visits to Tamil Nadu before the Lok Sabha election.
On the day Modi and his cabinet were taking oath for a second term, the Delhi BJP’s site was hacked and photos of beef recipes were posted on it.
(With PTI inputs)