Communal violence in Deoband for two weeks
Surendra Singhal from Deoband
Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh is burning in the fire of communal violence for more than two weeks. Muslims have taken the law in their own hands and Hindus are openly being victimised, but the administration is only mute spectator. Forget Hindus, the administration is not able to protect its own officers who are being attacked by Muslim hooligans.
A minor scuffle led to the deterioration of the situation. On April 23, 2013, one hawker Afzal by name died due to beating by a policeman. Afzal used to sell fruits at MBD Square. The same evening a mob of agitated Muslims placed his body on GT Road and blocked the traffic and indulged in open vandalism.
When the information reached to Collector Ajay Kumar Singh Yadav and SSP Vijay Yadav, they silently slipped away. SP Saharanpur (Rural) Dr Anil Mishra reached the spot and tried to pacify the agitated crowd but to no avail. The raging crowd attacked him and injured his gunner Sandip Raghav and also snatched his AK-47 rifle which the cops could not recover as yet. The uncontrolled crowd then targeted the VIP guest house and indulged in arson and loot. The officers there could save themselves by shifting to the safer places somehow leaving SP (Rural) Dr Mishra to handle the situation all alone. SDM Rajesh Kumar, CO Charan Singh Yadav and Kotwal Yashvir Singh Chauhan were nowhere to be seen during the disturbances. The goons also targeted Chairman Mavia Ali, Chairman DCC Bank Arun Rana and the media people. IG Meerut zone Bhavesh Kumar somehow got the jam cleared by making blank firing and cane charging the crowd.
ADM Brij Bhushan Tripathi was directed to conduct an inquiry into the incident as per the orders of the DM, but till now the report has not been made public. Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and Rajya Sabha MP Munnavar Salim announced an ex gratia of Rs five lakh to the widow of the deceased.
This incident caused such a terror and pressure of Muslims on the administration that they have not been able to identify and take action against any of the mischief mongers even after a gap of three months resulting in creating a sense of insecurity amongst the Hindus of Deoband. On July 7, one Hindu youth Amit Choudhary of Miragpur village was severely beaten by some Muslims of Manki village for a very trivial reason that one Alam of that village was injured by Amit’s bike. The police did not entertain the complaint of Amit. Reacting to this inaction and indifference of the cops, the people of Miragpur attacked the Maruti Van of one Yakub Teli of Deoband’s Mori Telian area and damaged the vehicle. The police did not take the notice of this incident also.
On July 10, in retaliation of this incident five Muslim youths attacked and injured Arun Kumar Master, son of Chaudhary Rampal Singh of Miragpur. The injured youth himself reached the police station to lodge a complaint but the cops failed to act. He then went to his village and told the people about the incident. Hundreds of angry residents of Miragpur village laced with lathis etc. reached Mangalor police post of Deoband and launched attack on the hawkers of the other community resulting in gross damage to their shops and carts. The Muslims too, did not lag behind and countered by jamming the GT Road in retaliation. This made the situation in Deoband tense and markets were closed. Senior police officers including SSP Ajay Yadav and SP City Anis Ansari reached the spot and additional police force and PAC jawans were deployed to check any untoward incident.
The Hindus of Manki called a Panchayat as protest to happenings of Deoband on July 10 but the police administration used all their powers and tricks to stop them from holding the Panchayat. Two of the former BJP MLAs, Dr Mamchand and Shashibala Pundir, former district president Choudhary Rajpal Singh, and member of BJP national council Jaswant Saini along with dozens of leaders were arrested in Deoband and sent to Saharanpur. Police lodged a case against the organisers of the Panchayat for violation of Section 144 Cr PC and later arrested Bajrang Dal leader Vikas Tyagi who was later released due to strong protests by the Hindus.
Again on July 18, a large section of Muslims in Deoband tried to disturb the situation by indulging in violence and disturbances.
The Muslims not giving a hoot for the police restrictions, called for closure of shops on July 19, and held a massive gathering after the usual Friday namaz which was addressed by Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind leader Maulana Mahmood Madni, Chairman Mavia Ali, and former MLA Imran Masood, who targeted the Hindus. They even threatened that they would not allow the Hindus to hold their Panchayat on July 22. DIG DC Mishra had announced on July 18 that the police administration would not allow the Muslims to hold their Panchayat but throwing that order to winds the Muslims did hold their Panchayat on next day and no one dared to take action against them for violation of the order.
However the administration denied permission to Hindus to hold the Panchayat at Deoband in spite of the fact that they rescheduled their Panchayat for July 26. The administration cancelled their request on the grounds that Section 144 CrPC was in force. It shows how SP Government has given a free hand to Muslims, and snatched the rights of the people of other communities.
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