Muslim Riot Victims Protest State Persecution in BJP ruled Madhya Pradesh
In the riot-hit Khargone district of Madhya Pradesh, hundreds of Muslim women hit the streets to protest the state’s persecution of its community members. The state is currently ruled by the Hindu supremacist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
The protestors accused the police of harassing Muslim women and making arbitrary arrests of children and senior citizens in false and fabricated cases.
“Police are barging into houses of Muslims and arresting men and children. They are harassing women as well. We are living in a fearful situation,” a Muslim woman told reporters.
Instead of addressing their concerns, the district administration re-imposed Section 144, prohibiting public gatherings.
During the Ram Navami festival last month, Hindu extremist mobs went on a rampage in the Muslim localities of Khargone and attacked Muslim families, homes, and places of worship.
A recent report released by a fact-finding team accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of orchestrating anti-Muslim violence.
“The violence was deliberately stirred and the reason was political,” said the team, referencing the BJP’s 2018 loss of 9 out of 10 seats in the Khargone assembly. “It is this defeat that the BJP is not able to digest and therefore it is conspiring to cause communal polarization to win the (2023) polls.”
Another Babri in Making? Uttar Pradesh Court refuses to Stop Videography of Gyanvapi Mosque
On Thursday, a local court in Uttar Pradesh state passed an order reiterating that the survey and videography of the Gyanvapi mosque will continue despite strong objections from the Mosque authorities.
The verdict came in response to an application moved by the mosque committee, which objected to videography inside the premises and sought the advocate commissioner overseeing the survey to be replaced.
Pertinently, commissioner Ajay Mishra was doing video survey of mosque areas that were not specified in the court order.
The court further said that the video survey would continue and be completed by May 17.
The BJP has been trying to communalize the Gyanvapi mosque issue by claiming that it was once a Hindu temple. This claim is similar to the one that was once made on Babri Mosque in Ayodhya, which eventually led to its demolition by the Hindu extremists in 1992.
A former BJP legislator Sangeet Som had recently called for repeating Babri and threatened to demolish the 17th-century Gyanvapi mosque. In an inflammatory hate speech posted on Facebook, he wrote, “Aurangzeb made the Gyanvapi mosque. In 1992, it was Babri and now in 2022, it is the turn of Gyanvapi. It is time to take back the temple which was demolished to make a mosque.”
Police’s Anti-Muslim Bias Force Muslim Victims to Seek Transfer of Probe
The victims of anti-Muslim violence at Khambhat in the Gujarat state have moved to the High Court seeking transfer of investigation to the Crime Investigation Department (CID). The petitioners accused the police of anti-Muslim bias, which directly encouraged the riotous Hindu mob.
In this connection, two complaints were filed. In the first complaint, police arrested 30 people, all Muslim victims, while the second one is yet to be investigated by the police.
The petition sought the court’s intervention “to initiate departmental, civil and criminal action against erring officers responsible for non-transparent, unfair, discriminatory treatment in connection with both the FIRs.”
Last month, following the Hindu festivals of Ram Navmi and Shobha Yatra, Hindu extremist mobs looted and destroyed the Muslim houses, shops, and a shrine.
The petitioners accused the police of not taking any action against the Hindus who were part of the rampaging mob.
“Every day a new arrest is being made in the first FIR whereas, in the second FIR, nothing happens. The same police investigating both the FIRs deliberately, consciously, and in a mala fide manner, don’t take any action with respect to offences arising out of the second FIR. Therefore, the investigation is biased, manifestly arbitrary, grossly discriminatory,” the petition read.
“All those arrests which are made belong to one section of society namely the minority. The investigation that has been carried out has been one sided based on religious consideration and religious bias,” the petition adds.
