Muzaffarnagar (UP), Aug 6 (PTI) A 17-year-old brother of a Muslim singer, who courted controversy for singing a bhajan, was stabbed to death by unidentified assailants here, police said on Sunday.

The victim, Khursheed, is the cousin of singer Farmani Naaz, police said.

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The incident took place on Saturday night at Muhammadpur Mafi village in Ratanpuri, Superintendent of Police (rural) Atul Shrivastava said.

"The body has been sent for postmortem examination. We have lodged an FIR and initiated investigation," he said.

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‘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).

Naaz, a resident of Muzaffarnagar, defended herself saying artistes 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.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)