The Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath is going all out to snare the absconding anti-CAA rioters who tried their level best to burn the state to the ground in the guise of protests. Yogi’s iron-hand nature in dealing with the rioters has already drawn praises from several quarters and now he is going for the final kill to bring all the perpetrators in the net of police. According to several media reports, the UP administration on Friday declared 14 anti-CAA and anti-NRC protesters as absconders and announced cash rewards for their arrest. Eight of these 14 protesters have already been declared wanted under the Gangster Act.
The accused were charged with arson, spreading communal disharmony and causing damage to public properties during the anti-CAA, NRC protest in Lucknow that turned violent. The accused includes Shia cleric Maulana Saif Abbas.
Moreover, posters with pictures of 12 absconding criminals people who allegedly took part in a violent protest in Lucknow have cropped up again in Lucknow’s Hazratganj. Earlier the Lucknow district administration had started the process to shame as many as 57 people who had been identified for causing violence during the anti-CAA protests. The matter had then gone to the court and the posters were withdrawn for the time being.
A total of 100 hoardings with names and addresses of 57 persons had been put across the city. Reported by TFI, in Kanpur, the six families whose members were involved in damage of public property have already deposited 80,000 rupees in district administration’s account. Every person paid an amount of 13,476 rupees to the administration.
In many cities of UP like Aligarh, Kanpur, Bareilly, Varanasi and Lucknow, which have sizable Muslim population, the anti-CAA rioters had tried to flame communal riots and targeted both police and the public property.
However, the UP police dealt with an iron hand and this is the reason that law and order remained under control in UP, despite having around one-fifth Muslim population, which makes it the state with the largest number of the Muslim population. As per a report by The Indian Express on 28 December, in Uttar Pradesh, 19 people were killed and 1,246 people were arrested based on 372 FIRs lodged against the rioters.
In UP, the police used modern equipment including facial recognition technology to recognize the anti-CAA protestors. High profile protestors like former Uttar Pradesh Governor Aziz Qureshi were also not left, the Moradabad Police had registered an FIR against him for the provocative speech at Idgah.
In Delhi, where citizen to law enforcement professionals’ ratio is among the highest, the protests were most violent and disruptive and finally resulted in riots. The UP Police must be commended for employing a no-nonsense attitude when it comes to dealing with violent protestors. Yogi Adityanath has set the template for other states to follow in case a violent mob tries to incite communal riots in the state.
The situation was under control in the state despite having a big Muslim community and even the involvement of Islamist organizations like PFI could not make the situation out of control. The credit for having such excellent normalcy in the state goes to Yogi Adityanath and his police. And now he is coming for them once again.
