A Muslim man was hacked and burned to death in Rajasthan, India on Thursday in a suspected hate crime.
Police identified the half-burned body as that of 48-year-old Mohammed Afrazul, who was working as a labourer in Rajsamand, located over 300km away from the state capital Jaipur.
A resident of Rajsamand, Shambhi Lal and his nephew, who shot the video, have been arrested and charged with murder.
A video clip of the act, which shows the accused leading the man to a secluded spot and attacking him with a weapon, went viral on social media on Thursday.
The video shows victim crying out for help until he goes silent.
The attacker then serves a warning against "love jihad", which the Hindu far-right believes is a conspiracy by Muslim groups to lure Hindu women into marriages with Muslim men and to convert them to Islam, on the camera.
"You jihadis, this is the fate that awaits you. Stop 'love jihad' in India, or else you will meet the fate of this man," the attacker says in Hindi.
He then proceeds to douse the body with petrol and set it on fire.
The visuals are too graphic and horrific to be shared here.
“It appears that Regar meticulously planned the crime. We have found videos on his cellphone which were shot a day before the crime, in which he has made more inflammatory statements,” Inspector General of Police, Udaipur range, Anand Shrivastava told The Indian Express.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje in a statement called the act ‘deplorable’ and said, "Culprit promptly nabbed by Police. Have directed them to prosecute the criminal in the shortest possible time. Deplorable Act which needs to be condemned in strongest possible terms."
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