Violence against Muslim minority continue unabated in Uttarakhand hills, Muslims in Kirtinagar in Tehri Garhwal district targeted

Violence against Muslim minority continue unabated in Uttarakhand hills, Muslims in Kirtinagar in Tehri Garhwal district targeted

S.M.A.KAZMI

Dehradun, Oct 29

The targeting of minority Muslim community in the hills of Uttarakhand continuous unabated as a shops owned by a Muslims were ransacked by Hindutva mob at Kiritnagar market in Tehri Garhwal district on the alleged charges of  conversion and ‘Love Jehad’ today. The mob raising provocative anti-Muslim slogans attacked the shops owned by Muslims including the one owned by Salman who has been missing for the past sometime.

The immediate provocation for the Hinudtva mobs led by their leader Lakhpat Bhandari was disappearance of a young girl from her village last night. It was alleged that the Muslim boy and the girl had an affair. The Kirtinagar police have registered a case under section 137 (2) of BNS and POSCO Act relating to kidnapping following  disappearance of the girl. J.R. Joshi, Additional Superintendent of Police, Tehri Garhwal  said that the police had received information about disappearance of a girl and separate teams have been formed to trace the girl. A case has been registered in this connection.

Earlier, the family members of the girl had registered a complaint against the Muslim youth for converting their daughter. The boy had been missing after the lodging of complaint against him.  A case of The Hindutva group also went to Kirtinagar police station and gave an ultimatum to the police to recover the girl or face violent protest. The group was led by Lakhpat Bhandari, a local BJP leader of Srinagar garhwal who has been leading the anti-Muslim charge in the area. Earlier, he was allegedly involved in targeting Muslim families of Chauras in Kirtinagar block of Tehri Garhwal district in the last week of July. The families who had been living there for the past three decades had to flee. Interestingly, those Muslims were forced to sign papers that they are quitting their shops and homes on their own. Early this month, Lakhpat Bhandari held a rally at Srinagar Garhwal where he delivered hate speeches and called for an economic boycott of the Muslims in the Uttarakhand hills. Interestingly, despite his hate speech going viral on social media no action was taken against him by the police.

This Kirtinagar incident today is part of series of  such incidents in which minuscule Muslim community living in the towns and cities of Uttarakhand were targeted on one pretext or another for the past  few years

The incident comes close on the heels of Uttarkashi incident on October 24 where police had to resort to lathi charge following violence, stone pelting by members of Hindu right wing organisations leading to injuries to many during their ‘Jan Aakrosh’ rally against a mosque in Uttarkashi town of Uttarakhand. The Hindutva groups had launched a campaign seeking demolition of the mosque in Uttarkashi town which they claim as illegal and situated on government land.

Uttrkashi district administration and police had clarified that the mosque in question was an old mosque which was not built on any government land and had been registered with the Wakf board since 1980’s. Uttarkashi police and administration had made elaborate security arrangements by erecting barricades on the road towards the mosque and deployed a heavy police force. The speakers at the rally led by Swami Darshan Bharati spewed venom against the Muslims and opened challenged the administration and reiterated their resolve to demolish the mosque stating that it was illegal.

Swami Darshan Bharati is a known hate monger having several pending hate speech cases against him including one at infamous Haridwar ‘Dharam Sansad’. While, the participants of the rally sat for hours on dharna as police did not allow them to proceed towards the mosque. The district administration officials made several attempts to talk to the protestors and again look into their demands but the crowd became restless and tried to break the barricade and threw water bottles on police personnel  leading to lathi charge. This was followed by stone pelting by protestors in which policemen and others were injured. Swami Darshan Bharati was amongst those injured in stone pelting and lathi charge and was admitted to hospital along with injured police personnel. The Uttarkashi police had registered cases against two hundred unnamed persons and arrested four of their leaders allegedly involved in the violence. The Hindu groups have threatened to hold a ‘Mahapanchayat’ in Uttarkashi against the administrative action after Diwali festival