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71 arrested in Saharanpur so far; DM, SSP hold all-party meeting
District magistrate of Saharanpur Akhilesh Singh and SSP Akash Tomar held an all-party meeting on Saturday. The SSP later tweeted that the meeting was held to ensure peace and normalcy in Saharanpur district, post Friday’s protest
MEERUT Police have arrested a total of 71 people since Friday for taking out an illegal procession and staging protest following Friday prayers at Jama Masjid of Saharanpur. Houses of two of the arrested accused Muzammil and Abdul Waakir were bulldozed on Saturday on charges of constructing them without seeking approval of map.
To recall, a crowd of namazis had taken out a procession and staged protest against inflammatory remarks of suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma. Police had registered cases against the protestors in Kotwali, Kotwali Dehat and other police stations and 71 protestors were arrested.
“We have arrested 71 protestors after identifying them through videos and photographs and houses of two of the arrested accused were bulldozed because they were illegally constructed”, said SSP Akash Tomar and added that action against wrongdoers would continue.
Meanwhile, SSP Tomar and district magistrate of Saharanpur Akhilesh Singh held an all-party meeting on Saturday.
The SSP later tweeted that the meeting was held to ensure peace and normalcy in Saharanpur district. “We will ensure that no one who is guilty is spared, but at the same time no innocent person will be harassed. Dialogue with all sections of society will continue,” he said.
A delegation of opposition parties and ruling BJP leaders also met the DM and SSP and demanded that stern action should be initiated against perpetrators of chaos but no innocent person should be harassed.
BSP MP from Saharanpur Fazlurrehman, SP MLA from Behat Omar Ali Khan, former MLA Sanjay Garg, district president of Congress Muzaffar Ali Gurjar, Shahar Qazi Nadeem Akhtar, RLD’s district president Rao Kaiser Saleem and others led the delegation of opposition parties.
The BJP’s delegation included MP Pradeep Choudhary, MLA Rajeev Gumbar, Mayor Sanjeev Walia and others.
Congress district president Muzaffar Ali and the party’s former MLA Surendra Kapil, however, raised question over bulldozing houses and said that such action should be taken only after completing judicial procedures. “Such actions are in violation of the judicial process, which hands out decision after hearing pleas of both sides. But here, set procedure and process of laws was ignored to instil a sense of fear among people”, they said.
On the other hand, Jamiat Ulma -I- Hind national general secretary Dr Hakimuddin Qasmi said on Saturday that Jamiat would provide legal assistance to those arrested.
Referring to inflammatory remarks of Nupur Sharma, Dr Qasmi said that the insult of the Prophet could not be tolerated and staging protest was a constitutional right of people in a democratic country. He further said that excessive arrests and use of bulldozers would not be good for a democratic government.
He said that sometimes notorious elements sneaked into demonstrations and protests but punishment should not be given to innocent people. He also appealed to people to beware of from such notorious elements and not to be lured by their misleading propaganda.
