Man slapped on Indigo flight: Misleading to claim incident shows ‘plight of Muslims’ in India

After the video of a man being slapped on an Indigo flight went viral recently, several social media users highlighted the incident as showing the plight of Muslims in India.  

Thirty-two-year-old Hussain Ahmed Majumdar from the Cachar district of Assam began suffering from a panic attack on an Indigo Airlines flight from Mumbai to Kolkata on July 31. As cabin crew members came forward to help Ahmed and were trying to calm him down, another passenger slapped him. In the now-viral video which was recorded by another passenger, co-passengers can be seen expressing their anger at the unprovoked attack and asked the person who slapped Majumdar why he had done so. In response to this, the passenger in question stated that he was getting disturbed at Majumdar’s behaviour.

A panic attack is a sudden feeling of intense fear or anxiety that can cause severe physical reactions despite there being no real danger. The symptoms of a panic attack may consist of rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath and dizziness.

As soon as the visuals began circulating online, social media was flooded with a range of reactions. Many users condemned the violence and expressed sympathy for Majumdar. Since the victim was wearing a skullcap associated with the Muslim religion, some users gave it a communal spin. Some began claiming that this incident happened due to discrimination on the basis of religion. (Archived link)

Many users clearly termed it as an incident of ‘Islamophobia’ and claimed that the accused was a Hindu, and it reflected the social status of Muslims in India.  (Archived link 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)

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Fact Check

Alt News performed a keyword search using terms related to the incident. This led us to several news reports which identified the person who slapped Majumdar as Hafizul Rehman. After landing in Kolkata, Hafizul was detained by the authorities. However, he was later released. It is clear that both the victim and the accused belong to the same community, and there does not appear to be any communal angle to the attack.

Indigo Airlines issued a statement condemning the incident and called such behaviour unacceptable.

We are aware of an incident involving a physical altercation on board one of our flights. Such unruly behaviour is completely unacceptable and we strongly condemn any actions that compromise the safety and dignity of our passengers and crew.

Our crew acted in accordance with…

— IndiGo (@IndiGo6E) August 1, 2025

In another post, Indigo reported that in line with its commitment to discouraging unruly behavior on flights, the accused passenger had been suspended from flying with the airline.

To sum up, in the Indigo slap case, both the victim and the accused are Muslims. The attack was not motivated by communal hate. However, once the video went viral, the incident was given a communal spin on social media. It is misleading to suggest that the slapping showed the plight of Muslims in India. Besides, the politicization of the incident diverted attention from the main issue, which is the need for awareness about panic attacks and related health issues.