Uttar Pradesh: A day after violence over recent remarks by now-suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma on Prophet Muhammad, police in Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur shared videos of municipal teams out with bulldozers under a heavy police presence, demolishing parts of homes of two of the accused arrested for disturbing the peace and social harmony. A total of 64 people have been arrested in Saharanpur, the district’s police chief said in a statement
Visuals shared by the police showed cops and municipal teams at the residences of accused Muzammil and Abdul Waqir, with bulldozers razing gates and outer walls of their houses which they claim were illegal constructions.
In Kanpur, where violent clashes and stone-pelting took place on June 3 over the same issue, the police today demolished properties belonging to a man they called a ‘land mafia linked to local leader Zafar Hayat Hashmi who is the main accused in the violence’.
Additional Commissioner of Police (Law and order) Anand Prakash Tiwari said that the Kanpur Development Authority (KDA) has demolished a newly-constructed building owned by one Mohammad Ishtiyaq, who is said to be a close relative of prime accused Zafar Hayat Hashmi.
The building was in the Swaroopnagar locality of Kanpur, 3 km away from where the violence happened.
Over 230 people have been arrested in the state so far for violent clashes over objectionable and communal comments against Prophet Muhammad by two BJP leaders. 11 cases have been filed in seven districts; all cases have been filed for serious offences.
