Violence broke out in Tripura after a mosque was vandalized, shops, houses owned by Muslims torched in Tripura’s Panisagar town on 26 Oct.
Violence broke out in Tripura after a mosque was vandalized and shops and houses owned by Muslims torched in Tripura’s Panisagar town on 26 October. The violence sparked during a rally taken out by VHP members against alleged communal violence against Hindus during Durga Puja celebrations in Bangladesh. Following this many other cases of alleged attacks on mosques and shops and houses owned by the minority community were reported from across Tripura.
The Muslim group claims a ‘political conspiracy’ in Tripura communal violence, where minorities are targeted. While mosques were vandalised, properties owned by Muslims were torched during the violence, resulting in some of them being completely burnt down located within a CRPF camp, they accused the police of being complicit in the crime.
Mosques and houses of Muslims were attacked by people associated with RSS, VHP, and Bajrang Dal across Tripura during Hindutva groups’ protest against Bangladesh violence. A mosque was burnt in Udaipur by right-wing groups.
Watch:
Mosques and houses of Muslims attacked by people associated to RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal across Tripura during Hindutva groups' protest against Bangladesh violence. A mosque burnt in Udaipur by right-wing groups.
Watch: pic.twitter.com/a4RjatjbGz
— Maktoob (@MaktoobMedia) October 21, 2021
When Muslims of #Tripura are under continuous violent attacks, even your own police officials were attacked by Hindutva goons, how can you give permission to such rallies ???
When Muslims of #Tripura are under continuous violent attacks, even your own police officials were attacked by Hindutva goons, how can you give permission to such rallies ???@BjpBiplab @Tripura_Police#StopAttackingTripuraMuslims
Video: Tripura Infoway pic.twitter.com/LBDzNcPdI8
— Mohammad Salman (@writesalman) October 22, 2021
Through all this, a joint delegation of Muslim organizations took a fact-finding trip to Tripura to look into reports of communal violence in the state in the last part of October and presented its report at a press conference in Delhi Saturday. The fact-finding team was led by the All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (AIMM), an umbrella body of Muslim organizations in India.
Speaking at the press conference, AIMM President Navaid Hamid and Jamaat-e-Islami Hind Vice President Salim Engineer, alleged that incidents of violence, arson, and loot against Muslims in Tripura were carried out by Right-wing Hindu groups such as the Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP).
Hamid also testified that as part of the violence, many shops owned by Muslims in remote parts of Tripura and about 16 mosques in the state were vandalized and torched,
“This was a political conspiracy and agenda to target Muslims. The police did not just oversee the violence, but even acted in connivance with the rioters and supported their acts,” alleged Hamid.
Hamid also said that while the short-term agenda it appeared was to stir up Hindu-Muslim differences ahead of upcoming assembly elections in states like UP and Uttarakhand, the “larger agenda was to ingrain in Hindus to not tolerate any Muslim places of worship”.
“And the agenda behind this provocation is that they want a civil war.”
The delegation of Muslim organizations spent three days in Tripura between 31 October and 2 November and reached out to the victims and opposition leaders from the CPI(M) and Congress, in an attempt to understand the nature of the violence. They were, however, unable to meet Tripura Chief Minister and BJP leader Biplab Kumar Deb.
Writing a letter to Biplab Kumar Deb on 5 November, the delegation demanded an impartial judicial inquiry into the violence “with a mandate of probing the role of Tripura police” as well. The letter to CM Deb also expressed shock at this action of the police, said Engineer.
Engineer, who was a part of the fact-finding committee and leading the press conference, said that till now six people had been arrested in cases relating to the violence and 11 FIRs filed, but claimed that the state of the investigation was very poor.
“Not only are they letting culprits go free, but targeting voices who were raising awareness about the violence,” he alleged.
The Tripura Police had invoked the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act against two lawyers conducting a fact-finding and legal assistance mission on behalf of the human rights organization the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL).
The only positive conclusion relating to the violence, according to the delegation, was that despite repeated provocations and attempts to instigate, the local Muslim population in Tripura did not react nor retaliate, and that common non-Muslims stood up to the rioters to defend the Muslims.
Tripura violence: After SC lawyers, 102 social media accounts face UAPA charge
Police have said that while some 150 social media accounts were initially listed for scrutiny, after a careful examination of the content, 101 accounts were shortlisted, which allegedly had “malicious propaganda” in them and “potential to create hatred”.
Three days after they charged four Supreme Court lawyers under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), police in Tripura have invoked the same stringent anti-terrorism law against 102 social media handles, and served notices on US-based Internet companies seeking detailed information on the owners of these accounts for writing “Tripura is Burning” and for simply sharing information about the attacks.
In a notice served through Twitter’s online Law Enforcement Request system, the officer-in-charge of West Agartala police station asked for the blocking of 102 handles, which he said were spreading “objectionable news items/ statements”
“Controversial posts on social media that can ignite communal tension are not encouraged. The concerned social media platforms can alert them, but how come the government asks to block social media accounts,” CPM leader Pabitra Kar said.
The Editors Guild of India also criticized the government move, saying the latter cannot use such stringent laws to suppress reporting on communal violence incidents.
“The Guild is of the opinion that this is an attempt by the state government to deflect attention away from its own failure to control majoritarian violence, as well as to take action against the perpetrators of this. Governments cannot use stringent laws like UAPA to suppress reporting on such incidents,” it said in a statement.
The Guild demanded that the state government conduct a fair probe into the matter and also reiterated their earlier plea to the Supreme Court “to take cognizance of the manner in which such laws are unjustifiably used against freedom of speech, and to issue stringent guidelines on charging journalist under them so that these laws don’t become an easy tool for suppressing press freedom”.
On October 29, the state government had alleged that a group from outside with vested interests had hatched a conspiracy against the administration to create unrest in Tripura and malign its image by uploading fake photographs of a burning mosque on social media after the October 26 incident.
Last week, the Tripura high court had taken cognizance of the violence and sought a detailed report from the state government by November 10.
The report, however, is yet to be submitted, according to people aware of the developments.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has also sought an action taken report, within four weeks, from the Tripura government on the violence.
The disturbing outcome of this is the police force lethargy to take action against the RSS, VHP, and Bajrang Dal mobs across Tripura but could it be far larger than the election vote time propaganda.
What could be their objective? Unfortunately, when the ruling government turns a blind eye to this kind of rioting and hatred, there is a far larger angle to look into. Is it that the BJP wants to subdue Muslims and other minorities as part of its larger agenda of enforcing India as a Hindu nation, therefore, crushing the republican secular democratic Constitution.
If this is so, then India will once again be submerged in battles and conflicts and there can be no further growth or development ever. Could it be that the present government under the BJP is actually invoking a civil war between Hindus and Muslims, as Hamid suggests? If so, they are aiming to take India back to 1947.