By Aliza Noor
“All over India, a total of 4,505 Muslims have been booked. And 265 Muslims have been arrested till 7 October,” stated a recent report by the Association for Protection of Civil Rights released on Friday, 10 October.
The report titled, ‘I Love Muhammad’ Demonstrations in Bareilly. A Fact-Finding Report into Collective Punishment and Criminalizing Faith,’ lays down the context of the crackdown on Muslims in Bareilly after Maulana Tauqeer Raza decided to submit a memorandum to the local authorities, pertaining to the ‘I Love Mohammad’ campaign last month.
“In a span of 30 days, 45 FIRs have been filed in 23 cities. All of them are against Muslims,” reads the report.
The updated figure of the arrests in Bareilly reached 89 on 7 October. During the fact-finding visit, APCR stated that local lawyers said Muslims were being picked up in the Baradari area of Bareilly, and the locality is tense due to significant deployment of armed personnel in the area. The fact-finding team is of the opinion that the number of arrests will increase.
“Rather than maintaining law and order, the actions of authorities were more to do with actually teaching a lesson to Muslims,” said senior journalist Prashant Tandon during the release of the report. Tandon was also part of the team that visited Bareilly.
The Bareilly Municipal Corporation (BMC) has served notices to 27 homes allegedly constructed “illegally on municipal land” with a warning that “FIRs will be filed against encroachers and demolition costs recovered from them.”
‘Bulldozers Used to Create Fear’
Tandon also noted that in most cases, a zero FIR was filed and names were later added who had nothing to do with the procession. “It’s as if merely taking out a procession is a crime in itself,” he said.
Advocate Mehfuzur Rehman Faizy, who was also part of the fact-finding team stated that the action of submitting a memorandum is a civil and a constitutional right.
“Bareilly was a different case. Because for the first time, the mere fear of bulldozers were used. They were stationed in the market and then it was sealed, no notice or dialogue at all. A clear contemptuous act. Attempt to murder charges were added to the FIR when there was no intention to kill,” he continued.
The APCR report states, “The inclusion of severe sections like 132 (offences against the State) and 302 (murder), despite no deaths or armed rebellion, signals excessive criminalisation even if the version of events put forward by the police is taken to be true. These provisions are reserved for the gravest threats to national security—not peaceful protests seeking to voice concerns. Likewise, Section 196 (which promotes enmity) is applied without clear evidence of hate speech or communal intent.”
This story was originally published in thequint.com. Read the full story here.