UP: A 17-year-old brother of a Muslim singer, who courted controversy for singing a bhajan, was stabbed to death by unidentified assailants, UP police confirmed to PTI on Sunday. The victim, Khursheed, is the cousin of singer Farmani Naaz, police said.

The incident took place on Saturday night at Muhammadpur Mafi village in Ratanpuri, Superintendent of Police (rural) Atul Shrivastava informed. “The body has been sent for postmortem examination. We have lodged an FIR and initiated investigation,” he said.

Khushid Was Killed Following A Dispute

According to local reports, Khurshid used to work as a labourer while living in the village. On the day of the incident, he had come out of the house late in the evening after having dinner. Meanwhile, three bike riders coming from Ratanpuri stopped him. Khurshid and the attackers are said to have argued for a while, then the miscreants killed Farmani’s brother.

‘Har Har Shambhu’, a devotional song praising Lord Shiva was sung by Naaz last year with a Deoband cleric terming it “un-Islamic” and “haram” (forbidden).

Artists Do Not Have A Religion: Farmani Naaz On Singing Har Har Shambhu

Naaz, a resident of Muzaffarnagar, defended herself saying artists do not have a religion and that she has not erred. She also participated in Season 12 of the singing reality show Indian Idol and her YouTube channel has more than 4.5 million subscribers.

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