By Team Clarion
NEW DELHI — A detailed report and a documentary on the violence last November in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh, allege that administration bias, police excesses, arbitrary arrests, and a selective use of the law resulted in five deaths and created a sense of fear and insecurity in the Muslim community.
The Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR) and Karwan-e-Mohabbat jointly released the report “Sambhal: Anatomy of an Engineered Crisis” and the documentary “Sambhal Mosque Killings” at the Press Club of India in the national capital on Tuesday.
The event included a panel discussion and testimonies from survivors, activists, and lawyers. The findings revealed disturbing facts about police action, religious targeting, and denial of justice.
Nadeem Khan, National Secretary of APCR, questioned the events that led to the violence. He said, “We are releasing this report six months after the violence to ask why two surveys were conducted without a proper process, why a slogan-chanting mob was allowed into the mosque, and why the community was not consulted. This selective use of the law led to five deaths in Sambhal,” he said.
The violence began after a local court ordered a sudden survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid on 19 November 2024. A second survey, conducted on 24 November, included the presence of a loud mob and actions seen as insulting to the mosque, which triggered large protests.
Shavez, a resident and school manager, shared his ordeal. “Many innocent people have been jailed. They are from poor families and haven’t even been granted bail. Part of my school was taken over without notice. When I tried to resist, I was threatened, and even legal papers were rejected until I went to the high court. Things are only getting worse,” he said.
This story was originally published in clarionindia.net. Read the full story here.
