Steady Rise In Communal Tempers: Fact-Finding Report

As the situation in Uttarakhand’s Haldwani continued to be tense, a fact-finding report found that the violence that happened on February 8 in Banbhulpura was the outcome of a “a steady rise in communal tempers in the state of Uttarakhand over recent years”.

Haldwani town in Uttarakhand’s Dehradun district remained under tight police and paramilitary deployment with curfew and internet suspension in place for the eighth consecutive day, after it grappled with communal tensions over the demolition of a mosque and madrasa.

However, despite the matter being contested in the court, locals claim that the Uttarakhand authority came to demolish the mosque. This they said was the reason why angry people protested, which in turn led to the viol.

Six people are reportedly dead and many police personnel were injured. The situation still remains tense with the locality being cut off and no one, including journalists, being allowed to enter the area.

Speaking to The Citizen about the situation a local journalist said that when they tried to enter the locality there was hardly anyone to speak to. And reports of regular police raids wrer making the rounds.

The fact-finding report released by Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR) and Karawan-e-Mohabbat pointed out the growing hatred towards the Muslims in Uttarakhand starting from the polarization and propaganda by the “state government”.

“The state government led by the Chief Minister Mr. Pushkar Dhami and radical right-wing citizen groups have together contributed to a highly polarizing narrative with many disturbing elements. One strand of this discourse is about creating Uttarakhand as a Devbhoomi, the holy land for Hindus which would have no place for other religious minorities,” the report stated.

Opposition Party Congress and civil society both have, earlier, raised their concerns over the rise in polarisation in the state with incidents of churches being attacked and economic and social boycott of Muslims coming forward.

The report mentioned that the violence on February 8 escalated when the angry crowd “set alight vehicles parked near the police station on fire and parts of the police station were also set ablaze” after the police personnel sealed the mosque and bulldozed the buildings, despite the matter being in court.

“The police resorted to firing. It may be noted that before firing crowd control protocol requires resorting first to less lethal modes of crowd dispersal such as lathi charge, tear gas, and water cannon.

“It is also disputed when the police began resorting to firing and when formal orders of shoot at sight were made. As a consequence of the police firing several people were injured and reportedly six people were killed,” report stated.

According to eyewitnesses, several hundreds of rounds were fired. Local residents believe that the number of people injured and killed may be significantly higher than the official claims however we are unable to verify this because we could not enter the affected areas and meet the officials concerned.

The dispute relates to a six acres of land claimed to be rightfully leased by Sofiya Malik. The state government on the other hand claims that this is Nazul land.

A petition was filed by a local resident named Sofiya Malik, in the Uttarakhand High Court on February 6 after her husband (Abdul Malik) was served with a notice for the demolition of the mosque and the madrasa on January 30.

In her plea, she sought interim relief from the proposed demolitions, however, on February 8, the local authorities carried out the demolitions.

Though the HC did hear the matter on February 8 (before the demolitions were carried out), no order granting relief to the petitioner had been passed by the HC and it only posted the matter for hearing on February 14, according to LiveLaw.

According to reports, the now demolished structures (Mariyam mosque and the Abdul Razzaq Zakariya madrasa) were built in 2002 in Banbhoolpura's Company Bagh locality and they were being looked after by Abdul Malik and his wife Sofiya Malik (petitioner in the HC).

On one portion of the land is located a 20-year-old Mosque and Madrasa.

In her plea, Malik claimed that the land on which the alleged 'illegal' mosque and madrasa were built, had been leased out to her in the year 1937 and sold to her family in the year 1994. A plea to renew the said lease had been pending before the district administration since 2007.

Meanwhile, highlighing the communal polarisation in the state, the fact-finding report also suggested that a pattern of demolition has been going on in Uttarakhand with Muslim localities being targeted. However, despite getting the notices people did not resist the demolitions earlier.

“In recent weeks eviction notices have been peacefully served on other residential buildings and demolitions have been undertaken without resistance. However, when on 30.01.2024 eviction notices were served to vacate the Mosque and Madrasa within a short period of two days committee members gathered,” the report stated.

After this, a delegation of Ulemas of the city met the Municipal Commissioner Haldwani and pleaded against the proposed eviction and demolition.

“However, when no agreement was reached, on 4.02.2024 the Municipal office sealed the Masjid and the Madrasa. On 6.02.2024 Sofiya Malik who claims to be the rightful lessee of the disputed land on which Mosque and Madrasa are located moved the High Court in Nainital. The matter was heard on 8.02.2024 by a single judge bench and was admitted with no order passed fixing for substantive hearing an early date of 14.02.2024,” the report added.

Meanwhile, the Uttarakhand High Court on Wednesday issued a notice to the State Government seeking its response in six weeks on a plea filed challenging the recent demolition of the mosque and madrasa in Banbhoolpura.

Having heard the counsel for the parties including Senior Advocate Salman Khurshid (for the petitioner) and Advocate General S. N. Babulkar, Chief Standing Counsel CS Rawat and Standing Counsel Gajendra Tripathi (for State of Uttarakhand/respondents), a bench of Justice Manoj Kumar Tiwari posted the matter for hearing next on May 8.

With no internet connection locals are scared to speak and with no entry of the media in the locality, there has been limited reporting on what the situation has been like in the locality.

But the local journalist added that Muslims are scared while many have already left their houses in fear of getting arrested. “In the initial days those who could, left the place, but now everyone is scared. There is still anger but more than that there is anguish,” the local journalist added.

The fact-finding report too averred that due to the curfew and internet suspension they were not allowed to meet with the Muslims in the area and had to resort to phone conversations in order to get the whiff of the current situation.

In a ground report, ‘Scroll’ said that there is a massive police crackdown taking place that has left many arrested.

Nainital’s senior superintendent of police Prahlad Narayan Meena told reporters that 25 people have been arrested in connection with the violence – including 12 for the attack on the police station, six for setting cars ablaze outside the police station and seven for violence during the anti-encroachment drive.

The arrested include two former councillors Mehboob Alam and Zeeshan, members of the Samajwadi Party, Arshad Ayyub, and Aslam Chaudhary, and Jawed Siddiqui, brother of another Samajwadi Party leader Abdul Mateen Siddiqui.

“The police are not sparing anyone this time. They are also angry and it is visible. If they are seeing anyone out despite the curfew they are being beaten up. So many are being arrested,” the local journalist added.

However, Scroll quoted Uttarakhand director general of police Abhinav Kumar saying, “We have no intention of acting against anyone without evidence.”

“A false narrative is now being constructed about the events of February 7th and their subsequent fallout. We intend to act without any bias in full accordance with the law,” as quoted by Scroll.

The fact-finding report, meanwhile, said that with curfew in place, most of the people, who are low-income daily wage earners, are not able to go for work, aggravating their hardships.

“A curfew of this length of time particularly in a settlement with a large number of low-income daily wage earners is causing enormous avoidable hardships and sufferings. Our team believes that much more extensive relief should have been extended by the district administration and arrangements made for periodic relaxations, particularly for women and children,” the report stated.

All the main entrances leading to the Banbhoolpura area in the town are barricaded along with police presence.

In 2022, the Uttarakhand High Court ordered the demolition of 4,365 buildings built by “encroachment on 78 acres of railway land.”

According to reports, the majority of people living in the area are Muslim.

In January 2023, after weeks of protests in which residents who had been issued eviction notices camped out on the street, judges at the Supreme Court court ordered a stay on the demolitions.

“There has also been a prolonged dispute around claims by the Indian Railways that the large settlements substantially of Muslim residents is in Railway land. The proposed eviction has been stayed by the order of the Supreme Court,” the fact-finding report stated.

It added that recently disputes arose about the legal ownership of tracts of urban land in Haldwani, again in Muslim-majority areas.

“The people in occupation of these lands claim to be rightful lessees of the land whereas the state government has taken the position that these are Nazul (Government) lands,” it added.

The demolitions are not confined to Uttarakhand only. Recently, International human rights organisation Amnesty International called for an immediate cessation of the widespread and unlawful demolitions of Muslims’ homes, businesses, and places of worship in India.

The organisation released two reports on Wednesday (February 7), titled ‘If you speak up, your house will be demolished’: Bulldozer Injustice in India’ and ‘Unearthing Accountability: JCB’s Role and Responsibility in Bulldozer Injustice in India’.

Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General expressed deep concern and said, “The unlawful demolition of Muslim properties by the Indian authorities, peddled as ‘bulldozer justice,’ is cruel and appalling. Such displacement and dispossession are deeply unjust, unlawful, and discriminatory. They are destroying families and must stop immediately.”

The organisation urged the government to “immediately halt the de facto policy of demolishing people’s homes as a form of extra-judicial punishment and ensure nobody is made homeless as a result of forced evictions” in a press note, adding that adequate compensation is given to all those affected by the demolitions.

Cover Photograph Reuters