Nagina MP and Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad was placed under house arrest in Saharanpur while attempting to meet families affected by the police crackdown on the ‘I Love Mohammad’ campaign and the recent Bareilly police lathi charge, prompting Azad to question, “If everything is well, why am I being stopped?”
He had planned to visit Bareilly to meet the victims, but police stopped him, citing security reasons.
“If nothing wrong has happened to my Muslim brothers in Bareilly? No injustice is being done? Then why does the Yogi government want to stop me from going there relying on the might of its police?” he asked.
He said that if the “dictators” remain intent on keeping them under surveillance, they have resolved to deliver justice to Bahujan society.
Bhim Army said in a statement that attempts to silence victims and stop their fight for rights will not be tolerated. “We will continue to fight for justice and always stand with society,” it said.
Earlier, Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad wrote on X, demanding an immediate cessation of the arrest and harassment of innocent Muslims, along with an end to arbitrary police raids and bulldozer actions.
He also urged the withdrawal of what he called false cases and the release of those detained, stressing that strict action must be taken against the guilty.
He alleged that whether it was the jailing of a youth in Shamli for writing ‘I Love Mohammad’ on his chest or the “brutal police lathi charge” in Bareilly on September 26, these incidents represented “a planned conspiracy to defame people of a particular religion to gain vote banks” and were “the epitome of the government’s dictatorship and arrogance.”
Azad argued that in Bareilly, the Muslim community had only organised a peaceful memorandum submission, but permission was denied even for offering namaz. He said the police then resorted to a lathi charge “to please their masters,” leaving innocents injured.
He further accused authorities of collectively punishing Muslims with false allegations of attacks using pistols, petrol bombs, and acid bottles, despite videos showing that the stone-pelting from rooftops was part of a “well-thought-out conspiracy.”
He said innocent Muslims were being “brutally beaten in police stations, paraded in front of the media, and their homes demolished with bulldozers,” while even women, children, imams, and muezzins were being harassed.
Calling this oppression a violation of the Constitution and Articles 25 to 28 guaranteeing freedom of religion, he declared that he would travel to Bareilly to meet affected families.
This comes a day after Saharanpur MP Imran Masood and former Amroha MP Kunwar Danish Ali were placed under house arrest on Wednesday to prevent them from visiting the protest-hit city.
