An elderly Muslim man was allegedly attacked by a group of Hindu fanatics who forced him to shave his beard and shout Hindu religious slogans in the Indian city of Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh state. 

https://twitter.com/zoo_bear/status/1404333656542306306

The video of the incident from the Ghaziabad district, which borders the national capital Delhi, has now gone viral. 

https://twitter.com/zoo_bear/status/1404334177793691650

The elderly man, identified as Abdul Samad Saifi, says in another video that he was in an auto-rickshaw when two men jumped in and started beating him up after covering his face with a piece of cloth.

Here is a video of Abdul Samad Saifi narrating the complete incident. He claims he was forced to chant 'Jai Sri Ram' by the goons.

https://twitter.com/zoo_bear/status/1404334990905602049

Mr Saifi says they took him to a forest, locked him up in a room and started thrashing him. He says the men forced him to shout Hindu nationalist slogan “Jai Shri Ram” (glory to lord Ram, a Hindu deity). 

Local media reports said the men were themselves chanting “Jai Shri Ram” when they took Mr Saifi to the forest and told him to repeat the slogan. The incident reportedly happened on 5 June.

The elderly man says there were at least five men and that they at one stage put a gun to his head, threatening to kill him. The men told him that they had killed many Muslims before, he says. Mr Saifi says he was punched, and beaten up with wooden sticks. 

In the video of the incident that has been circulated widely, at least two men can be seen slapping Mr Saifi, attacking him with wooden sticks and then taking scissors to his beard and crudely cutting it off as he tries and fails to resist.

Ghaziabad Police said a case has been registered in the incident. In a tweet, it said the main accused has been arrested and the police continued to look for the other men involved. 

In 2019, a Muslim teenager was allegedly set on fire by a gang after refusing to chant a Hindu slogan in Uttar Pradesh. However, the police denied that he was forced to shout the religious slogan, saying the boy gave different statements to different people.