New Delhi: Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR) has stated that the violence and ”targeting of people from a specific religion” in Madhya Pradesh were pre-planned and it were carried out by the hooligans of the BJP and RSS in presence of the police.
Addressing a press conference on Thursday, convener of the APCR and Supreme Court lawyer, Ehtesham Hashmi said that a fact finding team had visited Chandankhedi in Indore, Ujjain and Dorana in Mandsaur district. ‘We have collected a lot of evidence related to violence and targeting of people from a specific religion. We will be releasing the report in New Delhi next week,’ said Hashmi.
It was a well orchestrated violence with a common pattern spread across three districts, he added.
Besides, Hashmi and Inamdar, the fact-finding team compromised Advocate Mukesh Kishore (Member, CPI-ML), Kashif Ahmad Faraz (Journalist), Advocate Jawalant Singh Chauhan, M. Huzaifa (Student Activist, AMU), and Syed Ali (Social Worker).
“Similar patterns of violence were observed at every place that we visited. On 25th of December 2020, a religious rally was organized from five different places in Ujjain. Subsequently all five gatherings converged in the Begum Bagh locality where residents are predominantly Muslims.
The gathering raised derogatory slogans against Muslims. This led to a fight between the gathered mob and residents. A local woman is reported to have thrown stones at the mob which aggravated the tension. The mob started beating men from the local population and damaged their property. This whole incident happened in the presence of the local police,” Hashmi said.
He charged that in response to the incident police filed FIR’s against 40 residents of the area. The provocation came from the gathered mob and in whole police action the victims were harassed and accused by the police for the violence. One-sided action of the police was grossly irrational and arbitrary, he alleged.
The similar pattern was used in rest of places in villages of Chandankhedi (Indore District) and Dosana (Mandsaur District). The incident started a procession which was taken out in the name of collecting donation for Ram Temple in Ayodhya.