An elderly Muslim couple in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh were beaten to death because of their son’s relationship with a Hindu woman, national media reported. After the woman’s family members and others beat her with iron rods and sticks in Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh, on Friday night, Abbas Ali (55), and his wife Kamrul Nisha (53), they both passed away instantly.

The couple’s murder case has three accused parties who have been arrested, and the police are still looking for the other two. According to Sitapur Superintendent of Police Chakresh Mishra, the couple’s son vanished in 2020 with a young girl named Ruby. Shaukat, the woman’s son, was detained after the woman’s relatives reported him for allegedly kidnapping the woman.

According to police officials, some family members had plotted an attack on the couple after Abbas’ son was released from prison a few days prior. On Wednesday, Shaukat was freed from custody. The girl testified in support of Shaukat despite the girl’s family filing a complaint against him. Since the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took office in 2014, an increase in sectarian violence against the nation’s Muslim minority community has been documented. In a hate crime that occurred in July, a railway police officer shot and killed four persons, including three Muslim men, inside of a moving passenger train. The subsequently detained accused Chetan Singh identified himself as a supporter of both Yogi Adityanath, a devout Hindu saint who serves as Uttar Pradesh’s chief minister, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.