Jamaat-e-Islami Hind alleges UP Police 'brutality', bid to 'criminalise' Muslim identity

New Delhi, Oct 7 (IANS) Alleging a systematic attempt to criminalise Muslim identity, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) on Tuesday expressed concern over alleged police brutality and systemic targeting of the community members in Uttar Pradesh.

Addressing the monthly JIH media conference, Nadeem Khan, Secretary of the Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR), said, “What we are witnessing is not law enforcement but the collapse of lawful governance itself.”

“The police have turned from protectors into persecutors,” he said.

In recent weeks, a wave of repression has swept the state following peaceful expressions of love and reverence for Prophet Muhammad through posters and banners reading “I Love Muhammad”, he said.

The APCR and JIH demand the immediate withdrawal of politically motivated FIRs, the release of detainees without credible evidence, and judicial accountability for police excesses, he said.

While lawful regulation of public processions is understandable, the state’s overreaction — raids, arrests, and defacement of posters even inside private premises — reflects a deliberate attempt to criminalise Muslim identity and devotion, he said.

Many FIRs omit any mention of the “I Love Muhammad” slogan, instead invoking unrelated sections such as “unlawful assembly” or “promoting enmity,” revealing a clear political design behind the crackdown, said Khan.

He said that till September 23, police have registered 21 FIRs have been filed nationwide, implicating 1,324 Muslims with 38 arrests, including 10 FIRs in Bareilly alone.

“This is not a law-and-order response. It is selective persecution,” he said,

Even minors have faced detention for WhatsApp display pictures, and community leaders like Maulana Tauqeer Raza Khan have been repeatedly vilified and booked in multiple cases.

He added that the bulldozer — once a symbol of progress — has become an emblem of collective punishment and political vendetta.

“It is now deployed as an extra-judicial weapon to intimidate and destroy,” he said.

Referring to the National Crime Records Bureau 2023 data, he noted that Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest number of crimes against women and the highest atrocities against Scheduled Castes (15,130 cases), showing that “protective governance has crumbled while state machinery is repurposed to silence minorities.”

Khan called on citizens across faiths to reject polarisation. “Turning love for the Prophet into an offence is an assault on India’s Constitution and its moral conscience. We must stand together to restore constitutional order, equality, and justice,” he said.

--IANS

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