Tauqeer Raza Khan, president of the Ittehad-e-Millat Council, was arrested by police on Saturday following his appeal for a protest rally in favour of the 'I love Muhammad' campaign, which resulted in riots between protesters and police after Friday prayers in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, officials said.
"Tauqeer Raza has been arrested and further legal actions are in progress. The situation is calm and in control," Bareilly SSP Anurag Arya informed the media.
The arrest came on the heels of unrest on Friday, when a group of protesters carrying 'I Love Muhammad' placards clashed with police outside a mosque in the Kotwali area after prayer. Raza had claimed that authorities had disapproved of his demonstration at the last minute, triggering the clash during which there was stone-pelting and vandalism that resulted in the arrest of over two dozen individuals.
Later, Raza shared a video denying the version of the police, that he was put under house arrest and not allowed to address his supporters. In the video, he praised the injured protesters as "deserving congratulations."
He was also irked that he couldn't present a memorandum to President Droupadi Murmu via District Magistrate Avinash Singh, referring to what he termed "unrelenting assaults on Muslims" and demanding legal action.
Alleging intentional obstruction, Raza stated, "I urge all of you to go home peacefully. As has been the case every time, I was put under house arrest." He also accused spreading false news on his behalf.
"A fictitious letterhead with my name was used, and a false statement was issued," he claimed.
Raza also alleged that DM Singh and SSP came to him just as he was about to leave for Friday prayers, stepped up police deployment, and put him under house arrest. He threatened that stifling religious feelings would boomerang.
"The more the police try to gag this matter, the more it will surface. If religious issues are tried to be stopped, nobody will keep quiet. If I had attended the Friday prayers, nothing would have occurred like this. Lathis were specifically used on Muslims, against whom false allegations have been made," he declared.
"I am in house arrest. I will be glad if I am arrested. Just like (gangster) Atiq Ahmad was killed, kill me too. The government has 140 crore people to take care of. Intolerance towards one section is not acceptable. This time, there was no Hindu-Muslim clash; police atrocities were unleashed on Muslims," Raza said.
This report followed DM Singh and DIG Ajay Kumar Sahni where they had characterized the violence as an orchestrated conspiracy, accusing it of being an attempt to create unrest in spite of imposing Section 163 of BNSS in the state, which bars illegal congregations.
"A few days back, an organization suggested carrying out a march on Friday and filing a memorandum supporting a protest. We told them written sanction would be required in case of any such programme since Section 163 of the BNSS (power to issue order in urgent cases of nuisance or apprehended danger) is operational across the district," DM Singh said on Friday.
He said even though such instructions were given, some people also marched out on the streets after Friday prayers in an attempt to disturb peace.
The row began on September 9 when the Kanpur police registered an FIR against 24 people on charges of showing 'I Love Muhammad' placards during an Eid-e-Milad-un-Nabi procession on September 4.
There were some Hindu organizations that went against the decision, terming it as a "deviation from tradition" and a "deliberate provocation."
The problem soon escalated beyond Kanpur, resulting in protests and police crackdown in several districts of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Karnataka. The problem also garnered national attention, with the AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi claiming that saying "I Love Muhammad" must not be made a criminal offense.
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