A migrant labourer from West Bengal’s Murshidabad district was lynched in Odisha’s Sambalpur on Wednesday. Six persons have been arrested for the murder.

The co-workers and family members of the man, Jewel Sheikh, alleged that he was attacked on suspicion of being an undocumented immigrant from Bangladesh. However, the Odisha Police denied this and claimed that the victim and the persons accused in his lynching knew each other.

The assault took place in the Shantinagar area late Wednesday evening when Jewel Sheikh and other construction workers were returning from work. Two other workers, Akir Sheikh and Palash Sheikh, were also injured in the attack and were hospitalised in Sambalpur.

Samirul Islam, the head of the West Bengal Labour Welfare Board, said that Bengali-speaking migrant workers were once again being targeted in states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party. Read more.

A Hindutva mob vandalised Christmas decorations at a shopping mall in Chhattisgarh’s capital Raipur. This was among several attacks on Christians or disruptions to Christmas celebrations over the past week.

Videos of the incident in Raipur showed a mob armed with sticks barging into the Magneto Mall and destroying decorations a day ahead of Christmas. Hindutva groups had called for a state-wide strike on Wednesday to protest the allegedly illegal religious conversions in...

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