Adityanath sees Bulandshahr violence as 'accident', locals smell conspiracy

In the villages at the eye of the storm, residents struggle to protect themselves from repercussions of the violence.

While Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has identified the raising of a mob and the killing of a police inspector as an ‘accident’, nervous locals smell a larger conspiracy.

In the open courtyard of a former village head’s house in Mahaw, a group of Jat farmers’ leaders and village elders sat in a circle on plastic chairs. Visibly agitated, they were discussing the scrutiny that has suddenly fallen on their village.

“They want to turn Bulandshahr into Muzaffarnagar,” a Jat leader told The Wire. “This was an attempt to turn Jats against Muslims.”

He was referring to the 2013 communal rioting in the nearby Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh, which claimed more than 60 lives and tore apart the local communities of Muslims and Hindu Jats.

In Mahaw, the Jat leaders requested anonymity, saying they would speak out openly once they mobilised more support through panchayats.

Fear and panic among villagers

On December 3, near the Chingrawathi police post near Mahaw, a mob raised to protest alleged cow slaughter attacked policemen – leaving 18-year-old Sumit Singh and police inspector Subodh Kumar Singh dead.

The FIR in the case mentions 60 unnamed people. In Mahaw and the adjacent Chingrawathi village, most of the men have fled in fear of being arrested as suspects, even if they had no part in the violence.

The atmosphere of panic is palpable, and most resident speaking to the media asked for anonymity, fearing reprisals from either the police or ‘those responsible for the violence’.

There is also a clear sense of anger towards the administration, and local activists of the Bajrang Dal, whom police eyewitnesses have named as instigating the mob.

“Those who were behind this will get away, this will further embolden them,” Ajay Kumar, the pradhan of Chingrawathi told The Wire. “Our people are the ones whose lives will be destroyed, even those who were innocent bystanders.”

The violence took place on the last day of ‘Tabligi Ijtema’, a three-day Islamic religious congregation in Bulandshahr. More than one million Muslims had gathered in the city and many were on their way back on the same highway crossing through Chingrawathi when they were diverted to avoid that route.

“We tremble at the thought of what would have happened had the Muslims returning from Itjema not been diverted before reaching here. Some anti-social elements had deliberately planned this,” Kumar said. “A great tragedy was averted.”... Read More

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