On Thursday, a Lalit Narayan Mithila University professor from Bihar filed a police complaint after he and his family members were issued death threats. The complainant has been identified as professor Prem Mohan Mishra who said that he received a ‘Sar Tan Se Juda’ threat letter from one Parvez Alam. “Jihadis will severe your head at any time. This is what Allah has ordered,” the letter read.
Professor Mishra works in the Chemistry department of the Lalit Narayan Mithila University of Darbhanga. The incident is said to have happened on November 23. The letter also stated that the family members of the professor would also be murdered. “Sar Tan Se Juda, Sar Tan Se Juda,” the letter highlighted.
Parvez in the letter has also demanded the removal of Shashi Shekhar Jha who is an employee of the same department where the professor works in the University. The letter has accused Jha of allegedly verbally abusing a Muslim woman.
“Transfer Shashi Shekhar Jha to another college in Begusarai which is at least 20 kilometres away from the University. He keeps on abusing them. You must be knowing that when Nirmal Chowdhary was the Head of the Chemistry Department, he had forcibly taken away our book and accused us of stealing during the dental college examination,” the letter read.
“After the exam, we told that we knew nothing about the book. The book had been stolen from the library and was sold for Rs 17,000. We bought it. We have become doctors today by giving exams but will not forgive Shashi Shekhar Jha. Prem Mohan Mishra will suffer the consequences of this sin,” the letter added.
Professor Prem Mohan Mishra said that the incident referred to in the letter is true and that it is a 20-25-year-old matter. “I was not even in the University at that time,” he added. Professor Mishra has demanded police protection for himself and his family. Investigations in the case are underway.
The menace of ‘Sar Tan Se Juda’ threats afflicting India
For decades now, Islamists in India have mastered the veto of street violence and protests to fulfil their demands and instil a sense of fear among those who dare to enunciate uncomfortable facts. But of late, those protests have gone a step further, devolving into starker violence and featuring a nefarious chant of ‘Sar Tan Se Juda’ that has come to define the blasphemy rage coursing through the country.
“Gustakh-e-Rasool ki Ek hi saza, sar tan se Juda, sar tan se Juda”, which translates to “There is only one punishment for being disrespectful to Rasool (Prophet Muhammad), their head separated from their torso, their head separated from the torso”, an Islamist clarion call, has become a staple feature of violent protests that have so far claimed the lives of at least 6 Hindus, including Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur and Umesh Kolhe in Amravati, after Muslim fundamentalists, egged on by the dog-whistling of Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair against former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma, resorted to violence for what they perceived as ‘blasphemy’ against Prophet Muhammad.
From Kanpur in India’s northern plains to the southern metropolis of Bengaluru, from Kolkata in the east to Hyderabad in the south, protests in the name of blasphemy have erupted in almost every corner of the country as Islamists took to the streets running amok and shouting “Sar Tan Se Juda” chants over the perceived belief of blasphemy against the Prophet.
