In recent times the country has witnessed a surge of gruesome murders of Sadhus in different states of India. In August, in Auraiya district of Uttar Pradesh, two Sadhus were brutally murdered and another injured inside a temple premises. They were found tied to cots with their throat and tongue slit. It was later found that the killings were carried out by cow smugglers in order to silent the voices who were opposing illegal cow slaughter. The place was witnessing cases of illegal cow slaughter and the sadhus were opposing it.
In the same week, in a temple of Haryana’s Karnal, last month four sadhus were murdered.The gruesome killings took place in Shri Govind Dham Sant Ashram, also known as Bhai-Behen Mandir, in Manglaura village of Haryana.
In the very same week, in Manglaura too, horrendous killing of sadhus were carried out. They were tied to cots and their tongues were slit.
The Haryana police this week in a press conference announced that they have solved the case of gruesome murder of sadhus in Karnal. Sadhu Vinod Sharma and Sadhu Ajay Sharma, and Sevadar Sultan and Harjinder were brutally killed in Bhai-Behan temple of Karnal. However, the police has not disclosed the name of the murderers of four sadhus. Some news papers have reported that police is refraining from making names of killers public.
The Haryana police said that accused are member of an inter-state gang operating in six states that targets temple. According to police, the gang carries out its operation from Kannauj district of Uttar Pradesh and has strength of 80 to 90 members. The police said, the gang forms a group of seven to eight members and targets temples located at isolated places. They use blunt weapons like sticks and branches torn from tree. The police also suspects that the gang may have been involved in carrying out crimes in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and at places in Punjab, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
Recent months have witnessed many incidents where sadhus were mercilessly stabbed to death but what’s puzzling is the stoic silence maintained by media on these series of gruesome murders. While the self-orchestrated attack on a member of tukde-tukde gang gets 24*7 media coverage and other incidents of lynchings are highlighted again and again by agenda-driven media, these merciless killing of Hindu sadhus are often ignored by media for some secular reasons. The very same media, which outraged for over more than a month when few stones were thrown at a Church before Delhi elections by few rowdy people, is completely silent on the killings of innocent sadhus.
The government must take some serious and strict measures in order to stop these killings. The police of different states should work in tandem to eliminate the gang which is responsible behind the gruesome murders of the sadhus.