By Special Correspondent
On 19th January, Uttar Pradesh Police arrested 4 people, including the village pardhan, and registered an FIR against a total of 20 unidentified and identified people related to a case registered by UP police regarding offering Namaz at a private place at Sampant village in Bareilly district. UP police charge these people with ‘disturbing public order and breach of peace. Criminalisation of merely offering Namaz at a private place as threatening to public order and breach of peace is very strange. This is not a question of law and order but a direct attack on the fundamental right of people mentioned in Article 25, which guarantees the freedom of conscience, the freedom to profess, practice, and propagate religion to all citizens. Restraining people from professing and practicing their religion should not be seen in isolation; this is part of a larger crackdown of the Brahmanical Hindutva fascist BJP-RSS government on minorities to make them second-class citizens in India.
Furthermore, 10 More people have been arrested in the Sambhal violence case after 2 months, taking the number of arrested people in connection with the Sambhal violence to 70, including four women. Now after these arrests, police claim that at the behest of Shariq Satha, a Dubai-based criminal, his gang members orchestrated violence in Sambhal during the second round of the survey of Mughal-era Shahi Jama Masjid on November 24, 2024. Police also claim that Satha is associated with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and the Pakistani intelligence agency, ISI. Adding such story involvement of a Dubai-based criminal in this case after 2 months shows that the police are trying to divert all the chain of events that lead to violence in Sambhal and the killing of 5 Muslim people.
In another incident in Sambhal, family members of a man named Irfan, who died in police custody on Monday in Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal, accused police of custodial murder, claiming the police did not allow him to take essential medicines on time. Custodial killing and point-blank range encounters, especially of muslim minorities, are becoming a very common norm in Uttar Pradesh governed by Fascist Yogi government
CASR strongly condemns the arrests of 10 Muslim people in the Sambhal violence case and 4 people in Bareilly for merely offering namaz at a private place. We condemn the custodial murder of Irfan in Raisatti police station, Sambhal. We demand the immediate release of all those arrested in the Sambhal violence case and unwarranted Bareilly case and an end to criminalisation of Muslim minorities. We also urge democratic and progressive organisations and individuals to come together and raise their voices and build a movement against the Brahmanical Hindutva fascist onslaught on the oppressed and exploited sections of society.
CAMPAIGN AGAINST STATE REPRESSION
Organising Team* (AIRSO, AISA, AISF, APCR, ASA, BAPSA BBAU, BASF, BSM, Bhim Army, bsCEM, CEM, COLLECTIVE, CRPP, CSM CTF, DISSC, DSU, DTF, Forum Against Repression Telangana, Fraternity, IAPL, Innocence Network, Karnataka Janashakti, LAA, Mazdoor Adhikar Sangathan, Mazdoor Patrika, NAPM, NAZARIYA, Nishant Natya Manch, Nowruz, NTUI, People’s Watch, Rihai Manch, Samajwadi Janparishad, Smajwadi lok manch, Bahujan Samjavadi Mnach, SFI, United Peace Alliance, WSS, Y4S).
It is a highly disturbing act by an elected government there. It should be a case of violation of fundamental rights of a section of society and should be taken seriously by all peace loving citizens irrespective of faith they have.