Indian man kills Muslim laborer in apparent rage over intermarriage

Indian police on Thursday arrested a Hindu man over the murder of a Muslim labourer after identifying him from a video of the brutal killing that went viral and has sparked widespread outrage.

The graphic footage shows a man hacking laborer Afrazul Khan with a pickax and a machete before pouring kerosene over his body and setting it alight.

Afterwards the attacker, Shambu Lal Raigar, can be heard warning against so-called “love jihad,” a term used by religious radicals in India to accuse Muslims of marrying Hindu women in order to convert them.

The killing occurred in western Rajasthan state, which has seen a series of vigilante attacks on Muslims in recent months.

Most of the attacks have been related to the transporting of cows, which Hindus consider sacred, by so-called “cow protection” groups who roam highways inspecting livestock trucks.

The state’s police chief O. P. Galhotra told reporters Raigar had been charged with murder, calling it a “brutal crime.”

Police have also detained Raigar 14-year-old nephew, who they say recorded the killing and posted it to social media on the instruction of his uncle.

Muslims are about 14 percent of India’s 1.3 billion people while Hindus make up about 80 percent of the population. Religious conversion has become a flashpoint issue for Hindu nationalists in recent years.

Last month, thousands of copies of a controversial booklet were distributed to students at an event in Rajasthan warning Hindu girls of “love jihad.”

In April a 20-year-old Muslim man was lynched in eastern Jharkhand state for dating a Hindu woman.

Critics say vigilantes have been emboldened since the election of the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party in 2014.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.