New Delhi: At least 10 communal incidents or crimes linked to outraging religious feelings have been reported in Uttar Pradesh around the consecration ceremony of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya that took place on January 22.The incidents range from inflammatory posts and offensive sloganeering to installing Hindu saffron flags atop mosques during shobha yatra or insulting them. Three incidents each were reported from Kanpur, and Shahjahanpur districts in central Uttar Pradesh. The other incidents were reported in Agra, Azamgarh, Kushinagar, and Sant Kabir Nagar.In Sant Kabir Nagar, a mob of right-wing hooligans forcibly tried to enter a mosque in the Mehdawal area during a shobha yatra on January 22. A video of the incident, posted by the miscreants themselves, showed a large group of men creating a ruckus in front of a mosque, dancing in front of its gate while waiving tall saffron flags. “Bharat ka baccha bachha jai jai shri ram bolega. Har ghar mein ek hi naam, ek hi naara gunjega,” the song featured in the video said.Police said they arrested five persons in connection with the incident. They were identified as Ganesh Prajapati, Siddhant Jaiswal, Ashok Kumar, Anil, and Ramesh.In Kushinagar, an FIR was lodged against 10 Muslim men and other unidentified persons on charges of allegedly pelting stones and bricks at a dwaj yatra (shobha yatra) that was taken out in the Barwa Bazar area village in Kasia. The complainant Guddu Madeshia, a representative of the village Pradhan, also alleged that when the shobha yatra of some children was peacefully crossing the Bazar tola locality, Muslim youth objected to Jai Shri Ram slogans and attacked those participating in the yatra with lathis while also abusing them. Three motorbikes were damaged and four to five children were injured in the incident, alleged Madeshia in his police complaint, seen by The Wire.The accused persons were identified as Shaukat, Sageer, Rehan Ansari, Javed Ansari, Ajmal, Wazeem, Maulvi Arif Raza Siddiqui, Naushad, Munsaf and Ishtaqar. They were booked under Sections 147 (rioting), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 336 (rash act endangering life), 352 (assault), 427 (mischief causing damage) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke) of the Indian Penal Code.Superintendent of Police Kushinagar Dhawal Jaiswal, however, said that the dispute arose between the two sides over the bursting of firecrackers. “The report of stone-pelting on the shobha yatra is false and baseless,” said the officer. Jaiswal said police had arrested four persons for the incident and all sides of the matter were being investigated.In Shajahanpur, police on January 24 arrested seven Muslim youth, including two minors, for allegedly desecrating saffron flags put up on the street in the Batlaiya village in the Katra region a day earlier. The police sent to jail five persons, identified as Mohammad Iqbal, Aman, Dilpukar, Mohammad Shahid and Tajju, while two minors were taken into custody and produced before a juvenile court, said Additional Superintendent of Police (Rural) Manoj Kumar Awasthi.The accused were arrested on the charges of trying to disrupt communal harmony, said the officer.In another incident in Shahjahanpur, police arrested three persons, Ankit Katheria, Rohit Joshi and Rohit Saxena for removing a flag from a mosque in the Ramchandra Mission police station area on January 22 and replacing it with a saffron flag. The third incident was also reported in the same area where a man Sri Dutt Mishra was booked and arrested for posting a video of him online showing him burning photos of Hindu deities. He was arrested and is being questioned, said Sudhir Jaiswal, additional SP (City), Shahjahanpur.In Azamgarh, the matter got tense after a dispute broke out when a vehicle that was part of a shobha yatra on January 22 in Jahanganj was passing through a locality with Muslim residents. Police managed to bring the situation under control and arrested three persons Mohammad Zahid, Sageer and Shahnawaz and recovered sticks from them.A dispute arose over the designated route of the shobha yatra following which 40-50 young men from both sides confronted each other and entered a dispute, said SP City Azamgarh Shailendra Lal, adding that the police reached the spot and de-escalated the matter.In Kanpur, a Hindu student was booked for making offensive slogans against Muslims when slogans for Lord Ram were being raised in the hostel of the Pranveer Singh Institute of Technology (PSIT) in Sachendi area. A video of the incident was widely shared on social media, and on the basis of it, police lodged an FIR under Sections 153 A (promoting enmity between groups), 295A (outrage religious feelings) and 298 (uttering words with deliberate intent to wound religious feelings) of the IPC. A video showing the warden of the hostel scolding students for raising Jai Shri Ram slogans in the campus was also widely shared on social media.In the Juhi area of Kanpur, a Muslim student who posted photos on Instagram with abusive songs for Hindu deities including Lord Ram and the Ram Mandir, was booked on similar charges. Joint Commissioner of Police law and order Anand Prakash Tiwari took cognisance of both cases and said police were carrying out the “necessary correctional measures” and would ensure that such things do not repeat in future. Tiwari said police had spoken to the PSIT administration as well as to the family of the Muslim boy. The senior police officer appealed public to “not repost, retweet or recirculate” the offensive posts.In another incident in Kanpur, an FIR was lodged against three Muslim youth, Junaid, Sohail and Hasnain and four to five others on the charges of assaulting a Hindu boy on January 23 after threatening him on the eve of the Ram Mandir consecration ceremony. The FIR was lodged at the Babupurwa police station on the complaint of one Seema Biswakarma, who underlined her Hindu identity in the complaint, against her Muslim neighbours.Additional DCP Ankita Sharma, however, said that a dispute arose between two boys over the stopping of a motorbike. There was no law and order problem and two persons had been taken into custody and were being questioned, she said.As reported by The Wire already, police arrested 11 persons for hoisting Hindu saffron flags atop and inside a Mughal-era Mosque in Agra district. The incident took place during a shobha yatra taken out by right-wing activists soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi completed the consecration ceremony of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya at the site where the Babri Masjid stood till December 6, 1992.According to the FIR lodged at Tajganj police station on January 23, the caretaker of the Diwan ji Ki Begum Shahi Masjid in Billochpura alleged that around 1,000-1, 500 persons carrying “lathis and sticks” forcibly barged into the mosque at around 3:30 pm in January 22.“They created complete chaos in the mosque,” said Zahir Uddin, the mutawalli (caretaker) of the mosque. In his police complaint, Zahir Uddin said the “anti-social elements” hoisted saffron flags on the minarets, walls and in the inner premises of the mosque. They “desecrated the mosque,” said Zahir Uddin.The miscreants also raised religious slogans and threatened those inside the mosque, alleged the caretaker of the mosque. They were “unabashedly using undignified language for the other religion,” the FIR said quoting Zahir Uddin.The FIR lodged against 1,000-1,500 unidentified persons invoked Sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with a deadly weapon), 452 (trespass after preparation for hurt or assault) and 505 (2) (statements conducing to public mischief) of the IPC.
