While official figures suggest that seven lives have been lost in the violence, local residents from Haldwani’s Banbhoolpura area, Muslims fear that the toll would be as high as 18-20. This is part of a Fact-Finding team’s report. The team, in the wake of the recent outbreak of violence in Haldwani, a fact-finding team, with members from the Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR), Karawan-e-Mohabbat and civil rights activists Zahid Qadri and Harsh Mander visited Haldwani on February 14, 2024.
As of now, it has been reported that seven people were killed during the violence. The report details that six were killed by police bullets, and one allegedly by the bullet of a civilian and local resident named Sanjay Sonkar. The report also documents that locals attest that the actual number of casualties would be around 18-20, as people are fearful of coming out and speaking given the fear of police brutality.
As reports of “police excess” continue to come in, the fact-finding report specifies that no ‘written’ shoot-on-sight order was given, and in fact, and authorities were acting on ‘internal information’ when they fired. The report also suggests that there was a “planned conspiracy with marked outsiders that led to violence and arson”, including the burning of the police station, each of which is being used to falsely implicate and terrorise Muslim residents of the area. The report states that, “the entire incident appears to be a well-planned conspiracy.” Even, Sumit Hridyesh, MLA of Haldwani, has asserted and said that the incident was the result of a well-planned conspiracy. Hridyesh had earlier also stated that the authorities acted in a hurry to demolish the mosque and madrasa.
One reason for stating that “this entire incident appears to be a well-planned conspiracy,” was how deliberately “electricity (was cut off) around 5 p.m. anticipating that all the inverters would be exhausted by 7 or 8 pm in the evening. Consequently, the entire region experienced a blackout due to the power outage even as firing induced violence continued. (details below)
Background
Banbhoolpura is an area that holds a considerable Muslim presence. Observers have repeatedly stated that the violence that took place earlier this month was entirely unprecedented in Haldwani. However, Uttarakhand has been in the news prior to this incident for anti-Muslim incidents and hate speeches in the state. As the report states, this incident is not without precedent. Accusations of ‘love-jihad’, ‘mazaar-jihad’, and ‘land-jihad’ on Muslims have been spearheaded by several politicians from BJP.
Similarly, the report details that prominent faces in the state government, including elected officials along with radical right-wing organisations have been involved in making speeches and comments that keep communal fires stoked.
“The state government led by the Chief Minister Pushkar Dhami and radical right-wing citizen groups have together contributed to a highly polarising narrative with many disturbing elements. One strand of this discourse is about creating Uttarakhand as a ‘Devbhoomi’ the holy land for Hindus which would have no place for other religious minorities.” The report details that the CM Dhami has been mostly silent about unauthorised Hindu structures on forests and Nazool lands, while on the other hand he has boasted about the government’s destruction of 3000 Mazaars (shrines).
The administration, according to intelligence provided by the Nainital Local Intelligence Unit, was well aware that unrest would occur if they went ahead with the demolition. The report details that officials gave conflicting statements and just three days prior to the incident, the government suddenly stopped drone surveillance that was being conducted earlier in the area.
On January 30, 2024, the report chronologically documents that eviction notices were served which gave a two-day notice for the Mosque and Madrasa in Haldwani. However, despite pleas from local Ulemas and a legal intervention by Sofiya Malik in the High Court, a rather hurrief demolition was embarked upon. The High Court heard the petition of Sofia Malik who holds the leasehold over the land. The bench heard the matter on February 8 and gave the date for the next hearing on February 14 without passing any interim order. However, even while the matter was sub judice and before the High Court, the Municipal office sealed the structures on February 4, 2024.
The day of violence
Thereafter, despite the matter being sub-judice, on the evening of February 8, 2024, the Municipal office, accompanied by police presence, started the demolition of the sealed Mosque and Madrasa. As per the report, a large number of women came together to protest against the demolition. However, the women were allegedly abused, manhandled, beaten and forcefully removed.
In the midst of this unrest, the police unsealed the Masjid and Madrasa. They even chose to ignore their earlier instructions to give the sacred items in the buildings to the Maulana. The report details that the persons who were throwing stones at the police were masked, and from a different locality. During this time, the report also details that some sanitation workers, mainly from the Valmiki Community, gave the police their support and reportedly organised members from their community against Muslims. This resulted in the conflict turning communal, states the report. During the vandalism and attacks on Muslims, chants of ‘Jai Sri Ram’ were also reported by locals, states the report.
The report states that “some individuals wearing masks arrived at the police station and began stone- pelting and setting vehicles on fire. They appeared to have no fear of the police or gunfire as air-firing had been occurring until that point. All the vehicles and the Police van caught fire shortly afterward. Such an incident has never occurred in this city before…”
Prior to the time the police station was set to fire, the locals reported that the electricity was cut around 5 pm, by 7 pm, with inverters exhausted, the entire area was in a blackout. It was also around 7 pm that multiple incidents happened simultaneously. About three people were fatally shot and killed around this time. Furthermore, the report describes that it was during this power outage that unidentified people came and set the police station on fire, “During the blackout, some individuals reportedly arrived in masks and set the police station on fire. They appeared to be unfamiliar with the surroundings suggesting they were from different localities. Furthermore, their speech tones and accents were markedly different from those of the people of Banbhoolpura.”
“During the blackout, some individuals arrived and set the police station on fire. They appeared to be unfamiliar with the surroundings suggesting they were from different localities. Furthermore, their speech tones and accents were markedly different from those of the people of Banbhoolpura.”
A total of approximately 1000 rounds of firing are reported to have been fired and locals learned later that night of the ‘shoot at sight’ order.
Narratives of police brutality
The next day, the report documents how, reportedly, the police carried out a harsh assault on residents near Malik ka Bageecha. Over 100 people were detained, and women and children too endured brutal beatings and assault. The wife of a journalist named Saleem Khan, was also reportedly brutally assaulted and injured. Thus, despite four days having passed, when the team visited on February 14, 2024, the entire area continued to be deserted, and people are further being subjected to violence and brutality, as per the report. While, official records assert that only 30-36 people are detained, the report says that the reality paints a different picture the police have established detention centres where scores of people are being held against their will. According to former IFS officer Ashok Sharma, the police even used a local school to hold detained people which served as an ‘interrogation and detention centre.’
Watch Former IFS officer Ashok Sharma talk about what he witnessed and what he learned during his visit to Haldwani. @PCITweets pic.twitter.com/d0EpL5Ix0h
— FOEJ Media (@FoejMedia) February 15, 2024
Furthermore, even as the curfew set in, reports of police brutality continued to come in. These included reports of police entering homes forcefully and assaulting women, children, and men on the night of February 8, 9 and 10 as families continued to flee the region.
Harrowing narratives from Haldwani continue. A Newslaundry report brings testimonies from the ground where an 18 year old Muslim boy named Kaif got his skull fractured after, he says, the police barged in his house and beat him, “About five cops broke the door of our house and barged inside. Then they thrashed me with lathis. I pleaded with them to spare me but they kept saying that I was pelting stones on February 8…they did not listen to me. Why would I pelt stones at the police? I don’t have a father, I have to earn for my family. I am a construction worker. I hardly earn Rs 100 a day. But they did not listen to me even once.”
Related:
Demolitions as retributive state policy used against minorities in India: Amnesty