UP: FIR filed against Muslim cleric for allegedly making derogatory remarks on kanwariyas
· Scroll
Visit asg-reflektory.pl for more information.
The police in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar district have filed a case against a Muslim cleric for allegedly making derogatory remarks about kanwariyas, PTI reported.
The case has been filed against Sajid Rashidi, the president of the All India Imam Association.
In an interview with IANS, the cleric had questioned whether those who “sit on roads consuming alcohol and intoxicants” could be called devotees of the Hindu deity Shiva.
“Can those who assault police personnel in uniform be called Shiva devotees?” Rashidi had said, referring to a video of a group of kanwariyas assaulting police personnel in Meerut. “Can those who smash the windows of a school van and injure children be called Shiva devotees?”
The cleric, however, clarified that he was not speaking about all those who take part in the annual Kanwar Yatra.
During the Kanwar Yatra, devotees, known as kanwariyas, walk hundreds of kilometres to collect water from the Ganga near Haridwar and carry it back to their home states to offer at temples. The yatra began on July 30 and will end on August 11.
A complaint against Rashidi’s remarks was filed by Narendra Panwar, the chief of a Hindutva organisation named Hindu Sangharsh Samiti.
The police have filed a first information report against the cleric under a provision of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita which pertains to...