GORAKHPUR: 90-year-old Rashid Khan has finally saw some progress in his near decade-long battle to hold Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath accountable for his alleged role that led to the 2007 Gorakhpur communal riots.
On September 12, 2018, Tuesday, a bench of the Supreme Court comprising the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice AM Khanwilkar directed the Magistrate in Gorakhpur to pass an “appropriate orders” with respect to Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by Rasheed Khan’s complaint accusing Adityanath of delivering hate speeches that led to instigating a mob of Hindu Yuva Vahini and other Hindu organisations attacking the Sayid Mir Hassan Qadri dargah, damaging the properties and killing of Muslims.
Khan was then the caretaker of the dargah and Adityanath was a five-time Member of Parliament (MP) for the BJP from Gorakhpur.
On Supreme Court order, Khan reacted and said, “I will not give up on this until I am alive.”
“I’m doing this for my religion, I’m doing this for the Quran which was burnt, and I’m doing this because every person should be equal before the law. If someone does something wrong then he should be held accountable no matter how powerful,” said partially paralyzed Khan while speaking with HuffPost India over the phone.
Khan recalled the terrifying events on January 27, 2007, on Satvi Moharram, how the rioters indulged in destructive activities. They loot and set ablaze the dargah which Khan had guarded since he was 12 years old. “I was hiding behind a very old peepal tree inside the dargah. They burnt the Quran, they burnt the sheets inside the dargah…,” he said.