Muslim Cleric Beaten. The Next Morning, His Body Was on the Tracks.

-TheWire

On the night of April 26, 2026, 29-year-old Imam Mohammad Tousif Raza Mazhari boarded the Rishikesh-Muzaffarpur Special Train at Bareilly Junction, bound for Siwan in Bihar. He had just attended the annual Urs of Tajushsharia. Around 9:45 pm, he called his wife Tabassum three times in quick succession, one of them a video call. In a 29-second audio recording, he could be heard describing an attack by fellow passengers who had accused him of theft.

His wife told media that during the video call, she saw him being grabbed and slapped and heard him plead for help while other passengers remained passive. The next morning, his body was found on the railway tracks near Palpur Fatak in Bareilly. Railway authorities initially described the death as an accidental fall. His family rejected this, pointing to the recordings as evidence of a deliberate assault and mob lynching.

A post-mortem report dated April 27, signed by Dr. Ashutosh Parashari at Bareilly’s Post Mortem House, recorded the cause of death as “hemorrhagic shock and coma” and listed five injuries, including a 12 cm lacerated wound on the back of the head, all confirmed as ante-mortem, meaning sustained before death. All ribs were fractured.

His personal belongings and mobile phone were found with his body, ruling out robbery as a motive. His family noted that the familiar accusation of theft used to brand the victim and neutralize public sympathy was the same pretext used to incite collective hostility against him on the train. The Chenab Times

The incident sparked fear among Muslim migrant workers who frequently travel by train. Community members reported that people began cancelling train tickets out of fear of being targeted. Police, who initially filed no FIR, announced a fresh investigation only after the recordings surfaced publicly and political pressure mounted. The Observer Post

Tousif left behind his wife Tabassum and a community that is now afraid to travel.

When a man calls his wife during his own murder and the recording still isn’t enough to trigger an FIR, what does that say about our lives?

https://m.thewire.in/article/communalism/muslim-cleric-allegedly-assaulted-thrown-off-train-in-up-post-mortem-shows-fractures-in-all-ribs

#ImamTousifRaza #TrainViolence #HateCrime #MuslimLives #JusticeForTousif #Bareilly #MinorityRights

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Muslim Cleric Beaten. The Next Morning, His Body Was on the Tracks.

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