Kanpur: Two Muslims leaders have approached the District magistrate to sought a probe into the “excessive and unlawful” use of force, police action against protesters over Thursday to Sunday, along with offering no rally will be taken out for the next three days in Kanpur.
The Muslim community’s move comes in a bid to bring the attention of UP police’s polarization in the region, The Print reports.
During their meeting with DM Vijay Vishwas Pant Sunday, Abdul Hadi of the Deoband group and Alam Raza Khan Noori of the Sunni Jamaat said they won’t organize rallies until Wednesday, a senior official in the district administration told.
The DM promised to find a way to redress their concerns, added an official who does not wish to be named.
Reports suggest amidst the deepening communal polarisation in Kanpur, 16 cases have been booked across different police stations with more than 16,500 individuals booked for serious offences pertaining to disruption of public order and violence said Deputy Superintendent of Police Devendra Mishra.
The police crackdown in Kanpur over violent protests resulted in three individuals death after they were injured in bullet fired on them while seven more individuals injured remain hospitalized.
According to reports, UP’s death toll has mounted to 18 so far. Despite the meeting between the administration and the leaders, Kanpur Police have conducted “midnight raids” at the homes of “suspected” Muslim protesters in the areas of Parade and Bekangunj, adding to communal polarisation in the district.
A student affiliated with the Samajwadi party speaking about the midnight raids asked “Things were getting back to normal. What was the need to conduct such raids at 11 in the night?”
There were small midnight processions in the two areas after the word got out.
However, the Kanpur SP Devendra Mishra denied conducting such raids.
“No midnight raids have been conducted. We are just putting up pictures of the suspected people on various crossroads — so that they can be caught and booked… This should ensure that they don’t escape and cause more trouble,” the SP said.
Bajrang Dal, RSS goons and Kanpur police have teamed up to conduct such midnight raids at Muslim households said the people in the areas.
However, despite this, a second senior official from the district administration denied these claims as “sheer rumours”.
“When there are such widespread clashes, there is a tendency to hype one-off incidents as a mass phenomenon. But in this case, I’m not even aware of even a single incident of this kind,” he said.
The officer, however, failed to explain how the word got out regarding only Muslim ‘suspects’ households been raided in the midnight and why would families allege false accusations against the police unless such action has taken place.
Kanpur saw three days of violence as Muslim protesters remained at loggerheads with the city’s police, Pradeshik Armed Constabulary and the Rapid Action Force.
The clashes saw heavy stone pelting and exchange of fire that resulted in death of individuals.