"A few days ago a labourer, who is also from Jammu and Kashmir, came to Barot from Harabagh village. The others in the village saw this and got anxious. The tehsildar was called and we asked the man who he was and why he was there. After he explained that he was from a nearby village he was asked to leave, but this incident had already created panic," sarpanch Ranjana Devi says. Her husband, Ramesh Thakur, adds, "There is a lot of fear and anger against Muslims from the Tablighi Jamaat meet. It is everywhere. On WhatsApp, on Facebook, everywhere. This anger has poisoned the minds of people," Thakur says.

One of the accused is Ramesh's cousin brother, Rakesh.

Thakur was present when the labourers were taken to the hospital. When asked why the Tablighi Jamaat links would be used to target people who've been living in the village for six months, Devi says, "Their anger was elsewhere but they took it out on someone else. That is the environment here." Thakur says that when they saw the man enter the village, since then they were angry with the labourers. "When they went to hit them eventually, they were drunk and out of their minds."

Other villagers The Quint spoke to also agreed, "There was tension brewing ever since that man came from Harabagh. People were complaining that the labourers are not clean, they do not have baths and defecate in the open."