By Vertika Mani
How to ensure “peaceful” Holi celebrations in a Muslim-majority city? Simple. Just round up about 1,000 or so working-class locals and residents of the city, put them in preventive detention, cover all the mosques with tarpaulin, hold massively armed marches across the city, deploy drone surveillance, and heavy police presence.
That’s what the police in Sambhal did in the lead up to Holi 2025, which incidentally has fallen on a Jumma (Friday). While reports coming out of the city in the past year have been troubling to say the least, what we are witnessing now is the metamorphosis of Sambhal into a robust police state in toto.
The Sambhal administration exercises extraordinary control over the city now. Approximately 10 mosques in Sambhal stand covered with tarpaulin for the passage of the Chaupai procession by Hindus on Holi. Similar measures have been implemented in other cities across Uttar Pradesh, including Kanpur, Aligarh, Jhansi, Saharanpur, and Shahjahanpur, where mosques have been covered with tarpaulin.
This story was originally published in thequint.com. Read the full story here.
