While Islamic propagandists routinely cry about Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s strong-arming of minorities, it turns out the Islamists in the state are still thriving and engaging in unsavory activities with unrestricted liberty. Whether it is their involvement in love jihad or mass conversions, they refuse to back down. In May, the Uttar Pradesh police in Azamgarh arrested a gang of Muslims who had organized a mass conversion of underprivileged Hindus, and arrested 18 members as accused. They had allegedly targeted a slum area and decorated it in the manner of an Islamic shrine; they then organized qawwali performances and religious discourses in front of large gatherings.
Among those arrested in the crackdown was the mastermind, a man named Sikandar; the police are now hunting for those who have been illegally converted or were approached for the conversion. Additional forces were also called in to avert resistance during the arrest. Police have confirmed that Sikander and his accomplices had decorated the slum in the Devgaon area’s Chirkihit village, and proselytized the targets with “lucrative offers.” Amid all this, Sikandar would criticize Hinduism and praise Islam in order to initiate poor Hindus into the Islamic fold. During interrogation, Sikandar and others confessed to mobilizing people for conversion at this event, as well as to receiving funds. The accused have been charged under the Uttar Pradesh Unlawful Religious Conversion Prohibition Ordinance, which calls for prison terms of up to ten years for conversions through “misinformation, force, unlawfully or by any other such deceitful and dishonest means.”
In other news from the state, a 23-year-old pregnant Hindu woman was allegedly raped and poisoned to death in Shahjahanpur for not converting to the faith of the accused, Mohammad Naved. The victim was from a marginalized section of the Hindu community and was employed at a local hospital. She was three months pregnant at the time of the incident. Police sources state that she was in a relationship with the accused, who had initially presented himself to her as a Hindu. She was brought to Shahjahanpur’s district hospital on the night of Saturday, May 27, by Naved and his friend Farhan Khan, who introduced the victim as Naved’s wife, Zoya Siddiqui. The hospital staff noticed that they tried to flee after the woman was declared dead, and informed the police. The police caught both and found out that the details that they had given to the hospital were incorrect.
Among those arrested in the crackdown was the mastermind, a man named Sikandar; the police are now hunting for those who have been illegally converted or were approached for the conversion. Additional forces were also called in to avert resistance during the arrest. Police have confirmed that Sikander and his accomplices had decorated the slum in the Devgaon area’s Chirkihit village, and proselytized the targets with “lucrative offers.” Amid all this, Sikandar would criticize Hinduism and praise Islam in order to initiate poor Hindus into the Islamic fold. During interrogation, Sikandar and others confessed to mobilizing people for conversion at this event, as well as to receiving funds. The accused have been charged under the Uttar Pradesh Unlawful Religious Conversion Prohibition Ordinance, which calls for prison terms of up to ten years for conversions through “misinformation, force, unlawfully or by any other such deceitful and dishonest means.”
In other news from the state, a 23-year-old pregnant Hindu woman was allegedly raped and poisoned to death in Shahjahanpur for not converting to the faith of the accused, Mohammad Naved. The victim was from a marginalized section of the Hindu community and was employed at a local hospital. She was three months pregnant at the time of the incident. Police sources state that she was in a relationship with the accused, who had initially presented himself to her as a Hindu. She was brought to Shahjahanpur’s district hospital on the night of Saturday, May 27, by Naved and his friend Farhan Khan, who introduced the victim as Naved’s wife, Zoya Siddiqui. The hospital staff noticed that they tried to flee after the woman was declared dead, and informed the police. The police caught both and found out that the details that they had given to the hospital were incorrect.
