By Omar Rashid
New Delhi: Police in Uttar Pradesh’s Hamirpur district have arrested five Muslim men on charges of unlawful conversion after they conducted a celebratory ceremony and prayers to commemorate the death anniversary of a Muslim spiritual leader inside the house of a Dalit family.
The family – comprising one Urmila and her husband Ajit Verma – had got a mazaar (shrine) constructed inside their house in Hamirpur’s Maudaha area allegedly on the suggestion of the accused persons as they believed that praying to a ‘saint’ would cure Urmila’s illnesses and end their woes.
On the night of January 10, when the Dalit family was conducting an “urs” (Islamic religious ceremony commemorating the death anniversary of a saint) inside their house, the event was disrupted by members of the Hindutva group Bajrang Dal. These activists also brought the ceremony to the attention of the police and accused the Muslim men of trying to convert the family into Islam.
“An urs programme was going on at the house when we reached there at 2.30 am in the night. Chadar poshi (ritual offering of a sacred sheet of cloth) was happening at the shrine. Some maulanas were giving speeches. They were trying to convert the Dalit family to Islam by promising to cure their illness and offering them money,” Ashish Singh, former convenor of the Bajrang Dal district unit, told a local television channel.
Four of the Muslim men were arrested on January 10 itself and one, a day later.
The five persons arrested by the police were identified as Nooruddin (55), his nephew Meraj Hasan (32), Khalif (42), Irfan (46) and Mohammad Hanif (52). They were booked for criminal intimidation and slapped with Sections 3 and 5 (1) of The Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.