On Saturday (9th December), a Hindu tailor in Rajasthan’s Alwar district filed a complaint with the police after reportedly receiving a death threat from the banned radical Islamist outfit Popular Front of India (PFI).
The victim was identified as Sohanlal Jatav. The tailor claimed that about two weeks ago, he received a handwritten letter containing explicit threats of bombing and death.
The letter, which was said to have been written by PFI, gave Jatav time until 31st December to shut down his store in the market and embrace a fair price in exchange. It stated that the three stores that Jatav owns in the market supposedly belong to the Muslim community and threatened him to shut them up.
However on Sunday (10th December), Jatav informed the media that he had bought the land in 1971 from the village panchayat. A few people filed a lawsuit against him after he deposited the money and obtained the lease deed. A compromise was eventually reached, allowing him to construct retail shops on the property.
“I worked as a tailor in this shop for several years. Now, for the past six months, I have rented the shop to Balaji stationers. Now, there is a threat that my possession of the shop is illegal, and I should compensate for it and vacate it,” he said.
SP Anand Sharma took cognisance of the matter and commented on the issue. He confirmed that the threat letter was sent from the Chikani post office on 13th November, but it was delivered later. He also stated the possibility that the letter was written to cause trouble during the assembly elections. “The dispute over vacating the shop was resolved 30 years ago. The investigation into the case is ongoing,” he added.
It is important to note that a Hindu tailor Kanhaiya Lal was murdered in the year 2022 by two radical Islamists named Riaz and Ghous Mohammed. The duo disguised as customers and entered the tailoring shop of the deceased. While Kanhaiya Lal was busy taking the cloth measurements, one of the accused attacked him with a long sharp knife. According to the post-mortem report, he was stabbed 26 times on his body from his neck to shoulder. Kanhaiya Lal was killed for uploading a social media post in support of ex-BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma.