Prayagraj violence: Authorities give demolition notice to activist Afreen Fatima’s family

Civic authorities in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj on Friday issued a notice to the family of activist Afreen Fatima stating that their house would be demolished on Sunday as it was an “illegal construction”. Prayagraj Development Authority has asked Fatima’s family to vacate the house by 11 am. The authority claimed that it had given a show cause notice to Fatima’s father, political activist Javed Mohammed, on May 10, asking him to appear for a hearing before it on May 24.

However, he did not comply. While there are no provisions under Indian law to demolish the home of anyone accused of a crime, this pattern has been regularly observed across Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states. The Uttar Pradesh Police on Saturday arrested Mohammed for an alleged conspiracy to carry out violent protests against the disparaging remarks made by two Bharatiya Janata Party spokespersons about Prophet Muhammad, according to The Hindu .

Some protestors in Prayagraj’s Atala area had pelted stones at the police after Friday prayers. Senior Superintendent of Police Ajay Kumar alleged that Mohammed had also consulted his daughter, Fatima, about the protests. Fatima said in a video that the police came to her house without a warrant and took her father into custody, Maktoob Media reported.

She also said that the police detained her mother and sister and that she does not know their whereabouts. “My younger sister is just 19 years old and my mother is a diabetic patient,” she added. Fatima also claimed that the police attempted to detain her and her sister-in-law.

Student leader @AfreenFatima136 says she is extremely concerned for the safety of her father, mother and sister, whose whereabouts are unknown to her. She claims that women and small children are being forcefully evicted from houses in the middle of the night. Watch: pic.

twitter. com/cccm4T0eyw — Maktoob (@MaktoobMedia) June 11, 2022 Visuals from Saturday night showed several police personnel at the house of Mohammed and Fatima. 📌BIG.

Massive police presence at Afreen Fatima’s house. Notice served to them asks the family to vacate premises by 11 AM, tomorrow morning Her brother said, “police has threatened us and behaved badly with us. Set to return at 2 am” Story @thewire_in 👇 https://t.

co/TmRHqsmVzA pic. twitter. com/Ldi2Z0Euvm — Sumedhapal (@Sumedhapal4) June 11, 2022 On Saturday, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath said that “strict action” would be taken against “anti-social elements” who attempt to disturb peace.

“Not even one innocent person will be disturbed and not even one culprit will be spared,” he said. माहौल खराब करने की कोशिश करने वाले अराजक तत्वों के साथ पूरी कठोरता की जाएगी। ऐसे लोगों के लिए सभ्य समाज में कोई स्थान नहीं होना चाहिए। एक भी निर्दोष को छेड़ा नहीं जाएगा और कोई भी दोषी छोड़ा नहीं जाएगा। — Yogi Adityanath (@myogiadityanath) June 11, 2022 State BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh supported the calls for demolition of the homes of persons accused of violence. “Those whose homes are in the shadow of bulldozers do not throw stones at others,” he said on Twitter, On Saturday, the Kanpur Development Authority demolished a four-storey high-rise building owned by a close aide of the main accused in the violence that broke out in the city last week.

On June 3, at least 40 persons were injured in Kanpur after violence had erupted over the BJP spokerspersons’ comments on the Prophet Muhammed. Now-suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma had made derogatory comments during a debate on the Times Now television channel on May 26, while Naveen Jindal, who was media head of the BJP’s Delhi unit, had posted a tweet on June 1 about the Prophet. He deleted the tweet later.

Jindal was expelled from the party on June 5. .