A 50-year-old Muslim cloth vendor, Mohammad Athar Hussain, has died after being brutally assaulted by a Hindu mob in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, days after the attack in which he was targeted because of his religious identity.
Hussain died late Friday night while undergoing treatment at Biharsharif Sadar Hospital in neighbouring Nalanda district, police and family members confirmed. The attack took place on December 5 in the Roh police station area of Nawada district, around 120 kilometres southeast of Patna, the state capital.
According to his family and Hussain’s own recorded statement, he was returning on his bicycle from Dumri village, where he sold clothes door to door, when he was stopped by a group of six to seven men. His relatives allege the attackers were part of a Hindu mob that questioned him about his name and identity before subjecting him to prolonged violence.
A video recorded while Hussain was still receiving treatment later surfaced on social media. In it, he described being forced off his bicycle, robbed, and taken to a nearby room where he was tied up and beaten.
“They checked my pockets, dragged me into a room and locked me inside,” Hussain said in the video. “They told me to open my pants to make sure I am a Muslim, and then they beat me and burnt my skin.”
Hussain said the attackers beat him with iron rods, wooden sticks and bricks, crushed his fingers and other parts of his body with pliers, and trampled on his chest. He also alleged that petrol was poured over him in an apparent attempt to set him on fire.
“They stood on my chest and trampled me,” he said. “I was bleeding from my mouth. They beat me with bricks as well. Someone called the police and then I was taken away.”
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Police sources said local residents alerted authorities after hearing his cries, following which Hussain was rescued and taken to a nearby health facility. Due to the severity of his injuries, he was later referred to Biharsharif Sadar Hospital, where he died days later.
Hussain was originally from Gagan Dih village in Nalanda district and had lived and worked in Nawada for nearly two decades, selling clothes in rural areas. Family members said he was the sole breadwinner for his household.
“I am the only person earning for my family. There is nobody else to look after them,” Hussain told reporters while hospitalised.
His wife, Shabnam Parveen, filed a First Information Report, the formal document used in India to initiate a criminal investigation, at Roh police station. In her complaint, she alleged that the attack was driven by hatred and explicitly linked to her husband’s Muslim identity.
Parveen also accused authorities of registering a separate case against her husband earlier on the day of the attack, a move she claims was intended to divert attention from the lynching.
“Our family believes this was not random violence,” she said. “He was targeted because he was Muslim.”
Indian law does not define lynching as a separate offence, though the term is commonly used to describe mob violence. Over the past decade, rights groups have documented numerous cases in which Muslims and other minorities have been attacked after being asked to reveal their identity, often following rumours or suspicion.
Police in Nawada district said an investigation is ongoing. So far, four men have been arrested, identified as Sonu Kumar, Ranjan Kumar, Sachin Kumar and Shri Kumar. Searches are continuing for others believed to have been involved.
Roh police station in-charge Ranjan Kumar said the FIR was registered promptly and that the investigation is being conducted seriously. He declined to comment on the motive behind the attack, saying it would be determined during the probe.
Hussain’s family, however, insists the killing was motivated by Islamophobia, a term used internationally to describe hostility or prejudice against Muslims. They are demanding swift arrests of all those involved and accountability for what they describe as a hate-driven lynching.
The killing has renewed concerns among civil rights groups about the safety of Muslim workers in rural parts of India, particularly those who travel alone for livelihood.
For Hussain’s family, the immediate future remains uncertain. With their main source of income gone, relatives say they are struggling to cope with both grief and financial insecurity.
“He went out to earn an honest living,” a family member said. “All we are asking for now is justice.”
