Kolkata: A 27-year-old Muslim student, Rezaul Islam Mondal, was reportedly assaulted by a group of men on a train in West Bengal, who accused him of being Bangladeshi.

According to a statement by Kashmir Media Service, Mondal, a final-year M.Tech student at Aliah University, was returning from the Bishwa Ijtema religious gathering in Bangladesh when the incident occurred. The attack took place on a train traveling from Gede station to Sealdah, where the assailants physically attacked Mondal, pulled his beard, and threatened to throw him off the train.

The confrontation began when a passenger asked Mondal to remove his trolley bag from the luggage rack. Although he complied, a group of men then tried to force him out of his seat, using communal slurs and labeling him as Bangladeshi. Despite Mondal’s insistence that he was an Indian citizen, the group continued to assault him for nearly an hour, removing his skullcap and encouraging others to eject him from the moving train.

Mondal’s friend, Sajid Mirza, faced threats when he attempted to document the assault on his phone. Following the incident, Mondal sought medical attention and attempted to file a complaint at Haripal police station, although officers reportedly refused to register it.

The incident has elicited strong political responses. CPI (M) Rajya Sabha MP Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya attributed the attack to the rising influence of RSS-backed politics in the region. Indian Secular Front (ISF) MLA Nawsad Siddique also condemned the assault, criticizing both the BJP’s Hindutva ideology and the perceived inaction of the Trinamool Congress government.