Kairana is a historical city and a municipal board in Shamli district. Shamli was declared as a district in September 2011 and was named as Prabuddh Nagar by Mayawati, the then Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. In July 2012, Shamli got its original name back by Akhilesh Yadav, who became CM of UP in 2012. Prior to that, Kairana was a tehsil of Muzaffarnagar district. Now, this place is in news for its deteriorating law and order situation because there are reports that Hindu families in Kairana have been forced to flee after targeted attacks on them over the last two years. The BJP lawmaker from Kairana, Hukum Singh, has alleged that 346 families have been forced to flee the town, which has 85 per cent Muslim’s population. However, police and localities have denied about any such migration. Police has taken the list from the BJP leader and verifying the claims made by the MP. Some Hindu families complained to Ashok Kumar Raghav, senior police officer of Kairana that, they have not fled away anywhere but their names are included in the list forcibly. Though, Uttar Pradesh BJP has decided to take up this matter seriously and will send a high level team to assess the situation on the spot. A 11 member-team of the Members of Parliament, mostly from western UP would be sent by the party to give the exact picture of the situation and submit a report to the state party unit.
BJP MP and former Union Minister Hukum Singh had claimed that there was mass exodus of Hindu families from Kairana town over the past two years. The leader released the list of 346 families that had fled leaving their properties behind after they were allegedly targeted and persecuted by Muslims. The MP said the list mentions only the families of Kairana, and if those who migrated from other parts of the district are included, the number would be more than a thousand. The MP went to the extent of alleging that there have been at least 10 communal killings in the town, which has become a “new Kashmir”, in the past three years. However, BJP is in power at the centre for more than two years and no one ever mentioned about this incident. Many senior leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituencies fall in UP. Why they remained silent since last two years and when this state is due for assembly elections next year, they are digging the skeletons and screaming over such atrocities committed against Hindus?
The BJP however said the state’s Chief Secretary and Director General of Police have been served a notice by the National Human Rights Commission after it brought individual cases to the panel’s attention. The rights commission has asked them to reply within four weeks to the allegations that families of a particular religion are leaving the area as they are frightened of criminals. The BJP has also accused the Samajwadi Party government of patronising those behind the violence against Hindus – a charge that has been met with a strong denial. Now ahead of elections, BJP might say anything, but they are seen partying with Samajwadi party on various occasions By making noise now, BJP is indicating that such incidence pointing out that this is an attempt to polarise the atmosphere in western UP. This is the same Hukum Singh who earlier said, he wouldn’t let those living in Muzaffarnagar relief camps vote.
Some isolated incidents are being taken out of context and hyped up. Complaints allege that residents are fleeing owing to fear of criminals from another community, but the locals of Kairana town denied the same. Moreover, the extortion calls were made from jail, whosoever has provided the evidence of calls; forget to mention that those numbers belong to local jails. Now, the question is, what kind of law and order situation is prevailing in UP? Moreover, if the calls originated from jail then it means that these calls were not made without the assistance of authorities. Three Muslim families too have become victims of extortion and they are into timber business. The maximum calls were made to Hindu businessmen because Muslims in this region are not rich as compared to Hindus. No one knows who had made calls to extort money. They are jailed criminals and under the custody of state government. According to the complaint dated June 10, 2016, a woman belonging to Kashyap caste was abducted, gang-raped and killed, yet no action has been taken by the police against the offenders. Two of the businessmen, Shankar and Raju, both brothers, were shot dead by the criminals in broad daylight in the market when they did not pay protection money to the criminals. A petrol pump was also looted and when the police took on criminals, they shot dead a constable and managed to flee, the complaint mentioned. Saharanpur Range DIG A.K Raghav, however, was quoted by a local Hindi daily as saying that the police did not receive any such complaint but would inspect the ground to authenticate facts. The BJP has, meanwhile, termed the alleged migration as persecution of Hindus by the minority community and started a campaign on it. The issue has also sparked a political tussle in Uttar Pradesh where assembly elections are slated to be held next year and parties are wooing various communities and caste groups while using any ammunition available to target rivals.
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