Haldwani: The Haldwani district administration seems to have adopted a carrot-and-stick approach to deal with the aftermath of the violent clash that erupted last Thursday when their teams went to demolish an “illegal encroachment” — a mosque-cum-madrasa owned by Abdul Malik in the city’s Banbhoolpura area.
On the one hand, senior officials led by Nainital District Magistrate (DM) Vandana Singh and the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Prahlad Narayan Meena Monday spoke to representatives of Banbhoolpura’s Muslim and Hindu communities, and tried to explain the rationale behind the demolition, while on the other, the Haldwani Municipal Corporation (HMC) issued a recovery notice of Rs 2.44 crore to Malik, asking him to deposit the money by 15 February to cover the losses incurred due to violence allegedly “planned” by him.
In the notice to Malik, which ThePrint has seen, the HMC lists the damage it allegedly incurred on 8 February when its equipment and vehicles were pelted with stones and torched by a mob.
Malik has been named as an accused in three separate FIRs filed by the Nainital Police in connection with the violence. He is yet to be arrested. The police have, so far, arrested 30 people allegedly involved in the clashes, arson and attacking HMC staff and vehicles.
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Nainital DM’s response
During the meeting Monday, maulanas from various mosques in Haldwani representing the Muslim community urged the administration to relax curfew hours and also provide passes allowing movement of people, so that they could reassure locals living in fear in the wake of the violence and subsequent heavy police deployment.
Mohammed Maqueen Qasmi of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind said that the 8 February violence could have been averted had Muslim leaders like him and others been taken in confidence before the demolition.
DM Singh asserted that all points made by “responsible citizens” were heard and verified on 3 February, a day before the demolition was initially planned.
However, that day, representatives from Muslim community requested to stay the demolition on 4 February but didn’t give any documents to support the ownership rights of Abdul Malik on the property.
Following this, the administration decided to go ahead with the plan. Forces carried a flag march and a detailed demolition plan was chalked out.
However, around midnight, the representatives returned with a 2007 order of Uttarakhand High Court which, the DM said, could not be verified instantly and hence the demolition was postponed.
“How many confidence building measures can a district administration take unilaterally? The onus is also on the responsible citizens from Banbhoolpura area to help the Police identify who pelted us with stones and tried to challenge the state machinery and system on 8 February,” DM Singh said during the meeting.
The DM added that one of the officers on duty in the area was handed over a memorandum on 7 February saying that the locks of the property, sealed after a consensus between local representatives and administration, should be opened since children from the area study at the madrasa.
However, the DM said that the administration checked the registration status of children in the neighbourhood to find out if they were already registered with government schools. She added that this led them to think that these might have attempted to influence the administration and pressure them into opening the locks of the property using children’s education as a reason.
“Reaching a consensus on 3 February on sealing the property and then handing out a memorandum to one of our officers on the ground was a walk away from the consensus built on the structures,” DM said to the Muslim leaders. “What we were trying to do was to free government land from a person who was illegally occupying and selling that land on Rs 50 stamp paper, cheating people. What we were trying to do is both the right thing and the duty of public servants, but we were met with such an attack.”
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)