After Maulana Tauqeer Raza announced a protest rally in UP’s Bareilly, the administration has imposed curfew in the city till July 3. Section 144, which does not permit the gathering of more than four people, has been imposed in the city.
On June 3, there were massive anti-Hindu riots in Kanpur after the Friday prayers.
The riots broke out after the Muslims forcibly started closing the shops in Kanpur to protest BJP National Spokesperson Nupur Sharma’s comment in a TV debate. When some shopkeepers refused to shut their shops, a Muslim mob started pelting stones.
The Kanpur Police have registered three FIRs in the case and has arrested over 30 people. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has instructed the police to invoke Gangster Act and the NSA against people found involved in the riots.
Police is scanning the videos to identify people who were involved in the riots. Either their properties would be confiscated or demolished.
The Police identified local Muslim leader Hayat Zafar Hashmi as the main conspirator in the case. He was arrested from Lucknow. The investigation also revealed that YouTube channel AVP 24 was used to plan and instigate the riot.
The office of AVP 24 is in Lucknow and Sultan Siddiqui, Imran & Javed Ahmad are the owners. Javed Ahmad is also a personal friend of Hashmi.
Hashmi used this YouTube channel to promote hate and instigate riots. This channel was also used to spread the information about riots. Police have also recovered Popular Front of India (PFI) documents from Hashmi’s house and suspect that PFI was involved in the riots.
On June 3, after the riots in the city, Hashmi returned to Lucknow with his friends Javed, Mohammed Rahil and Mohammed Sufiyan. Rahil and Sufiyan are accused in the riots. After reaching Lucknow, they found a place in the office of AVP 24 to hide themselves.
In a hate-speech on January 7 in Bareilly, Maulana Taukeer Raza had threatened that if Muslim youths take law in their hands, Hindus won’t find space to run in India.
“I see the anger within my Muslim youths and I am afraid that the day this anger bursts out, the day I lose control over them… I want to warn my Hindu brothers that I’m scared that the day my Muslim youths take the law into their hands, you will not find a place to hide anywhere in India”, Maulana Taukeer had said.
Again, in April this year, he had threatened that Muslim youths will take to street and no one will be able to stop them.
‘Behead Hindus’ call has been given multiple times by clerics in Bareilly and slogan “Gustakh-E-Rasool ki ek hi saza, sar tan se juda, sar tan se juda” [There is only one punishment for speaking against the Prophet and that is beheading] has been raised by lakhs of Muslims in Bareilly over many times.
In January this year, just before the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, Taukeer Raza had joined the Congress party.
In a TV debate on May 23, BJP National Spokesperson Nupur Sharma had quoted Quran and Hadith. On May 24, propaganda website Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair posted a clip from that debate with a twisted comment that it was blasphemous. Other Islamists supported his stand.
