A Muslim man was reportedly heckled and abused by a mob for allegedly selling beef in Assam’s Biswanath district on Sunday.

The man identified as one 68-year old Shaukat Ali was allegedly beaten up and forced to eat pork as punishment by locals, a report in NDTV said.

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A video that has gone viral on social media shows the man on his knees and begging to let him go.

According to reports, Ali runs an eatery which serves meat.

The police have reportedly detained five people in connection with the case.

“We picked up five people, including two market committee leaders, in a bid to disperse the mob. They were allowed to go after signing a good behaviour bond under Section 107 of Code of Criminal Procedure,” a district administration official was quoted as saying by The Hindu.

As per the video circulated, the man was asked by the mob if he had a licence to sell beef and whether he was from Bangladesh.

“Are you Bangladeshi? Is your name in the NRC (National Register of Citizens)?” was heard in the video.

According to district police, two separate First Information Reports (FIR) have been filed – one by Shaukat Ali’s brother and the other by the market’s manager.

Biswanath district police, however, said it was ‘not a matter of communal tension’, as the mob had misbehaved with a man from another community too.

The draft National Register of Citizens for Assam was published on July 30, 2018, in which the names of 2.89 crore of the 3.29 crore people were included. The names of 40,70,707 people did not figure in the list. Of these, 37,59,630 names have been rejected and the remaining 2,48,077 are on hold.

Lakhs of people fled to Assam during the 1971 war between India and Pakistan and the influx continued thereafter. The infiltration of Bangladeshis, mostly Muslims, through the porous Indo-Bangla border has been a serious issue for Assam since early 1980s when the state witnessed a massive students’ movement demanding the deportation of the illegal migrants.

The BJP in its manifesto had said that it “will expeditiously complete” the NRC on priority. The party also said that it would implement NRC in a phased manner across the country.