By MilliGazette
New Delhi: The Muslim minority community at Sarangpur town/Tehsil in Rajgarh district of Madhya Pradesh is right now reeling under communal forces and local police administration’s reign of terror. According to information received today from this town of 40,000 inhabitants, it all started yesterday afternoon, 26 March, when at around 3.30 pm a violent crowd of around 250 persons went around throwing colours on people, shops and houses including the Jama Masjid, the main mosque of the town. When Muslims objected, the crowd threw stones at the Jama Masjid. The crowd from the local akhara was armed with swords, lathis, trishuls etc. It was led by Mr Lalit Paliwal, chairman of the Sarang Nagar Palika (municipality). All this happened in the presence of a police force led by an additional superintendent of Police which chose not to intervene in any way. Section 144 (curfew) was promptly imposed in the Muslim areas after this incident.
In the evening, at around 7-8 pm, a police force came to the Muslim locality and picked up some 12 young Muslim boys and put them in the lock up. When their relatives went to the police station to plead for their release, they too were arrested and put behind bars. In the same night at around 1 am, a crowd, again led by Mr Lalit Paliwal, came to the Muslim locality along with a bulldozer. They looted and then smashed four houses and 12 shops using the bulldozer.
The local police station, led by Thana In-charge Mr Rakesh Shukla, has refused to register FIRs or take any action against the criminals who were responsible for the attack on the Jama Masjid and Muslims and later destruction of their houses and shops. Curfew remains in force only in Muslim areas.
Dr Zafarul-Islam Khan, President of the All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat, the umbrella body of Indian Muslim organisations, has condemned this act of violence against the minority community. He has written to the President and Prime Minister of India and other Union and Madhya Pradesh state functionaries demanding their urgent intervention required to (a) stop this injustice and lift the curfew, (b) arrest and try the culprits, (c) set free the innocent persons picked up in an illegal show of force against a hapless minority community, and (d) pay the owners of the demolished houses and shops proper compensation so that they can rebuild/repair them and resume normal life.