Muslim boy, 15, is set on fire in India for refusing to chant Hindu slogans

A Muslim boy in India claims he was set on fire for refusing to chant Hindu slogan ‘Jai Shri Ram’. 

A Muslim boy in India claims he was set on fire for refusing to chant Hindu slogan ‘Jai Shri Ram’. 

The 15-year-old teenager said he was captured by four men in the Chandauli district of Uttar Pradesh. 

He refused to say the chant, which roughly translates as ‘Hail Lord Ram’, a Hindu god, on religious grounds. 

The men allegedly poured kerosene over him and set him alight, leaving him in a critical condition with 60 per cent burns over his body, Outlook India reported. 

‘I was walking on Dudhari bridge when four men kidnapped me. Two of them tied my hand and third one started pouring kerosene. After which they set me on fire and ran away,’ the boy said.

However Chandauli police are treating the incident as suspicious and have reportedly claimed the boy set himself on fire. 

‘He’s admitted in a hospital with 45 per cent burns,’ Chandauli superintendent of police Kumar Singh told ANI news agency. 

This would not be the first time people in India have been attacked for refusing to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’.  

A young Muslim man accused of theft died in India in June, after a mob forced him to recite Hindu religious chants while beating him ‘mercilessly’ for hours.