PUCL UP Demands a Judicial Inquiry into the Killing of 5 Men in Sambhal
By PUCL Uttar Pradesh
Any new survey to be stopped in accordance to The Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act of 1991
PUCL Uttar Pradesh expresses its deep anguish in the killing of 5 youths in Sambhal on 24th November allegedly by the bullets fired by the policemen and demands for high level judicial inquiry.
PUCL UP also demands that the order for surveying the 900 year old Shahi jama masjid claiming it to be Harihar Mandir which goes against the places of worship act 1991 and is unconstitutional should be averted in future.
In the present case a petition was submitted in the local Court where it claimed that the Shahi Jama Masjid made between 1526 to 1530 was made on Harihar temple on which the court without even listening to the Muslim committee heard the case and ordered for a survey. Subsequently the survey started where the locals remained patient but after the initial survey things started to heat up. On 24th November, the survey team visited the site for the second time with a heavy police force which led to a tense environment in the entire area. In a press conference held on 25th November by the head of the masjid committee advocate Zafar Ali said that when water from the cistern was removed then locals mistook it for digging up the premises. Many people started to gather near the masjid and started raising slogans and according to the police they threw stones at them and then the police lathi charged on them.
According to the locals the police also shot at the crowd which led to the death of 5 youngsters but the police is denying the allegation even though in many videos they can be seen doing the same. The police has said that 20 policemen were injured due to the stone pelting and many vehicles were torched. In several videos the police can be seen throwing stones as well and Zafar Ali said in his press conference that of all the motorcycles that were burnt only 1 belonged to the police. It is highly condemnable that just after this press conference concluded the Uttar Pradesh police arrested him on the evening of 25th November.
Sambhal SP Krishna Kumar Bishnoi gave a comment that only ‘simple force’ which included tear gas and lathicharge was used to disperse the crowd but the five deaths due to gunshot wounds tells another tale. This incident is very serious. This seems to be a repetition of the 10th June 2022 incident regarding Nupur Sharma statement where police had arrested several innocent Muslim youngsters and minors into the jail. PUCL Allahabad had even issued a fact finding report regarding it.
Two established individuals advocate Kashan Siddiqui and Javed Mohammed were picked up late in the night of 24th November from Allahabad by the SOG team of police for simply expressing their angst regarding the killing of 5 Muslim youngsters and were charged under sections of breaking peace. Kashan Siddiqui was granted bail on 25th November but Javed Mohammed was sent to jail. This poses a doubt that other people might have been arrested for writing something on social media regarding these issues in different cities of Uttar Pradesh.
PUCL believes that a high level judicial inquiry needs to be set up regarding the incident of Sambhal and cases should be filed against the accused policemen for the killing of 5 Muslim youngsters.
Another important issue is that PUCL would like to highlight that immediately ordering a survey in any petition which aims at questioning the religious sanctity of a building is a communal act. In this case the other side was not even heard and was not even given an opportunity to reach out to the higher Court in order to challenge disorder which is illegal and reeks of religious bias which is the reason behind the current environment of unrest and the death of 5 people.
This would eventually lead to a flood of such petitions questioning the religious sanctity of religious sites which is dangerous to any secular and democratic country. In UP itself petitions around Ayodhya, Mathura and Banaras led to their surveys which were then used as political propaganda leading to communal polarization and marginalisation of the minorities. These petitions have become a means for the domination over Muslims and their otherisation and it is important that they are stopped immediately it needs to be remember that to solve such problems in 1991 the protection of religious places Act was brought with stated that any monument which existed in a certain way on 15th August 1947 what we considered as such and no changes cannot be brought on to it.
Even in the Ayodhya judgement, it is stated that this won’t be treated as a president and another cases in 1991 act would be applied as per needed only through strong implementation of this law can be preserve the secular nature of India and hence the responsibility lies on not just government but also judiciary. Unfortunately both of them are currently conveniently ignoring this law leading to a scenario of communal clashes which needs to be sub immediately or else incidence like what happened in Sambhal will not stop.
PUCL Uttar Pradesh demands the following:
- High level judicial enquiry needs to be set up regarding the incident of 24th November in Sambhal
- The police officials responsible for the death of 5 individuals need to be arrested and a case of murder needs to be tried against them
- Appropriate compensation needs to be given to the families of the deceased
- With regards to the incident in Sambhal, large scale FIRs being filed in which many who are picked up are minors and investigation needs to be done in this regard and false cases needs to be taken back
- Those responsible for ordering the arrest of advocate Zafar Ali should be punished
- The order of surveying the Jama Masjid of Sambhal needs to be cancelled
- All petitions drawing aspersions on religious structures need to be dismissed with a fine and the spirit of the places of worship act 1991 needs to be preserved
Date: 26-11-24
T.D. Bhaskar Adv. (President)
Chittajit Mitra (General Secretary)