The Sambhal report, released by Association for Protection of Civil Rights, opens with a fundamental assertion: this is not just documentation, it is resistance. Six months after the deadly violence in this Muslim-majority town in western Uttar Pradesh, this report is offered not merely as a record but as resistance. The document, Sambhal: Anatomy of an Engineered Crisis, aims to resist official erasure, media distortion, and the state’s attempt to rewrite Sambhal’s communal fabric. It narrates how a historical mosque became the stage for manufactured conflict, and how state agencies, from the local court to the police, collaborated in engineering a communal crisis. By presenting a meticulous chronicle of state violence, communal narrative-building, and sustained repression, it seeks to ensure that what happened in Sambhal is remembered not through state propaganda, but through the testimonies of its victims. In an atmosphere where truth itself is under threat, the authors urge: the fight for justice begins with memory, with testimony, with refusal.
The Historical Frame: Contesting sacred space
Sambhal is a Muslim-majority town (approx. 77.6%) in western Uttar Pradesh with historical and architectural significance. Sambhal is home to the Shahi Jama Masjid, one of only two surviving mosques built during Babur’s reign, with the other being in Panipat. The mosque stands as a rare surviving monument from the early Mughal era. The town also holds significance in Hindu belief as the prophesied birthplace of Lord Kalki, the tenth avatar of Vishnu. While the mosque is a protected monument under the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), right-wing groups claim it was built on the ruins of the “Hari Har Mandir”, allegedly demolished during the Mughal era. These claims rely on discredited 19th-century colonial accounts, particularly by ACL Carlleyle, whose report was rejected by the then ASI Director General, Sir Alexander Cunningham.
This confluence of history and myth set the stage for conflict, especially in a town that was once a stronghold of anti-CAA protests and continues to elect Muslim representatives like MP Zia Ur Rahman Barq, whose family has long resisted the majoritarian politics of the ruling party. Over the past few years, this mythical narrative has been aggressively revived. Mahant Rishiraj Giri, a petitioner in the present dispute, has said he wanted to file a case even before the Babri suit. The town has already been declared a potential “Kalki Dham” by BJP leaders, and PM Modi laid the foundation of a Kalki temple in 2024.
November 2024: A timeline of escalation
- November 19: A civil suit by eight petitioners is filed alleging the mosque was once a temple. Within hours, by 3:30 pm, the Sambhal civil court grants permission for a survey, waives the notice requirement, and appoints an advocate commissioner. By 7:00 pm, the survey was underway. The mosque committee was neither notified nor given a chance to be heard.
- November 22: Friday prayers occur under heavy police presence.
- November 23: Authorities begin preventive detention under Section 107/116 of the CrPC; 34 persons, including the father of MP Zia Ur Rahman Barq, are bound by peace bonds up to ₹10 lakh.
- November 24: A second survey is conducted without fresh court orders. Police are accompanied by PAC, RAF, and officials from multiple districts. This time, a video went viral showing members of the survey team chanting “Jai Shri Ram”, and a rumour spread that the mosque was being excavated. The ablution tank was drained, and water was seen seeping from the structure, fueling panic. A protest breaks out. Police respond with tear gas, lathis, and gunfire. Five Muslim men are killed.
Police Firing: Lethal force, denials, and eyewitnesses
According to Masjid Committee President Zafar Ali, the protest on November 24 was peaceful until CO Anuj Chaudhary responded to concerns with verbal abuse and an unprovoked lathi charge. he police, led by CO Anuj Chaudhary, responded with verbal abuse, a lathi charge, and then tear gas. As people began to flee, the police escalated, firing live ammunition.Tear gas followed, and then live rounds were fired. The crowd began to disperse, but police pursued them into lanes and homes. Eyewitnesses reported police using slurs, destroying property, and shooting indiscriminately.
Five Muslim men were killed, including a minor:
- Kamran (17), shot in the chest.
- Nasir, Abbas, Basim, and Nabeel—each with fatal injuries, many allegedly from police bullets.
Videos circulated showing police shouting “Goli chalao” (fire the gun), pelting stones, and dragging minors. Authorities denied using firearms but later admitted to firing “warning shots”. Zafar Ali, who openly accused the police, was detained and later arrested under serious charges.
Authorities claimed the protesters were armed and that police only fired in retaliation. Yet, no police injuries or gunshot wounds from “desi kattas” were documented. The families dispute the claim of crossfire and assert that their relatives were unarmed and shot from the front. (Detailed report may be read here.)
Suppression of victim families and testimonies
The families of the deceased report:
- Denial of postmortem reports.
- Being forced to sign blank papers or coerced to remove references to police in their complaints.
- Rapid burials under police pressure.
- Heavy surveillance at their homes, making it difficult to speak to outsiders or pursue legal recourse.
For example, Kamran’s family was called to identify his body, made to give thumbprints on documents, and forced to bury him amid a police convoy. Nasir’s mother said she saw two bullet wounds but received no documentation. Basim, before dying, told his family he was shot by police. The police allegedly forced them to rewrite their complaint, removing the word “police”.
The Legal Offences: Violating due process and the law
As per the report, the lower court’s order violated:
- Section 80(2) CPC: No genuine urgency justified bypassing notice to the mosque committee.
- Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991: This law bars alteration of the religious character of any place of worship as it existed on 15 August 1947.
- Article 26 of the Constitution: Grants religious denominations autonomy over their places of worship.
Despite these clear violations, the Allahabad High Court later upheld the survey, and referred to the mosque as an “alleged masjid” even in a whitewashing plea. The Supreme Court has stayed proceedings but failed to undo the communal spectacle that the survey facilitated. (Detailed report may be read here.)
Myth-Making: Temple discoveries and state rituals
Shortly after the violence, local officials claimed to “discover” a hidden temple near the Shahi Jama Masjid. The structure was cleaned and declared sacred. District officials performed worship ceremonies, and a priest claimed the idol “smiled”. This triggered a wave of temple “discoveries”, 24 sites were surveyed by the ASI within weeks. Carbon dating was announced, and claims emerged that 56 temples and 19 sacred wells had been hidden by Muslims.
The government launched a spiritual tourism project titled “Kalki Nagri.” Plans were made to develop 87 religious sites and a 24-Kosi Parikrama Marg. Authorities, priests, and right-wing figures declared temple idols had been “discovered” at sites like wells and drains. In some cases, idols were immediately installed and worshipped. The state began institutionalising the narrative that Sambhal is a Hindu holy site under siege.
Muslim residents refuted these claims, saying these were existing sites in disrepair. As per the report, a local lawyer remarked: “They are digging up new temples every day. We fear they will come into our homes and dig one up there too.”
A new police chowki named “Satyavrat Chowki” was built outside the Shahi Jama Masjid using stones from the protest site. The chowki was inaugurated with Hindu rituals, including a havan and shlokas etched on its walls
Administrative Reprisals: Raids, Demolitions, and Surveillance
In the weeks after the firing:
- Mass detentions occurred. 83 people, including minors and Masjid Committee President Zafar Ali, were jailed. Over 160 bail pleas have been rejected. (Detailed report may be read here.)
- Zafar Ali, who publicly stated he saw police firing, was arrested on March 23, just before he was scheduled to testify before a judicial commission. He had not been named in any FIR prior. His arrest included disproportionate BNS charges, including those carrying life imprisonment or death penalty. Dormant cases from 2018 and 2021 were suddenly revived against him.
- Police launched electricity theft drives: 1440 cases were registered, mostly against Muslims, including 16 mosques and two madrasas. A total fine of ₹11 crores was imposed. MP Barq alone was fined ₹1.91 crores (Detailed report may be read here.)
- Encroachment demolitions began in Muslim areas. Some residents pre-emptively dismantled their own homes.
- The Janeta Sharif Dargah, previously a site of interfaith worship, was marked for probe, its clinic shut down, and its fair cancelled.
- Loudspeakers were removed from mosques.
- Police built a new outpost, engraved with Hindu shlokas, using stones allegedly “thrown by Muslims” on November 24.
- The administration questioned the Dargah’s Waqf status, and its land was bulldozed. This marked the first major Waqf land crackdown since the 2024 Amendment Act. (Detailed report may be read here.)
Surveillance and silencing of victims
Families of victims report constant police surveillance. The report recorded one mother stating that “They sit outside our house 24×7. You are lucky you met us while they were away.”
Many families, like those of Nasir, Abbas, and Nadia, reported being beaten, having property vandalised, and facing threats if they spoke to media or filed complaints. The DVRs of CCTV footage were seized. Police broke into homes and slapped women, dragged children, and refused to register complaints.
Constructing a new narrative: From victims to villains
The state and media spun a narrative portraying Muslims as aggressors:
- UP CM Adityanath claimed Muslims had turned mosques into “mini power stations”.
- He invoked a fabricated figure of 168 Hindu deaths in the 1978 Sambhal riots to justify crackdowns.
- Posters branding Muslims as “pathharbaaz” (stone pelters) were plastered across the town.
- The Kalki Dev Tirth Samiti was instituted to develop “religious tourism”, with 87 sites being prepared for Hindu pilgrimage.
The result is a manufactured transformation of Sambhal from a Muslim-majority town to a contested Hindu religious centre, without public debate, evidence, or consent.
Legal recommendations and civil society appeals
The report calls for:
- Independent investigation into police killings and torture.
- Immediate release of detainees without proper FIRs.
- Enforcement of the Places of Worship Act in both letter and spirit.
- Rebuilding trust through compensation and an end to bulldozer demolitions.
- Holding judicial commissions accountable for bias.
- A nationwide civil society campaign to reject communal myth-making and support Sambhal’s residents.
Conclusion: Sambhal as a “Template”
The report ends on a haunting note:
“Ultimately, the situation in Sambhal is not an isolated incident but part of a larger pattern of narrative construction that seeks to redefine the Muslim community as a problem to be managed rather than a population deserving of rights and protection. As such, it calls for a reevaluation of how narratives are formed, disseminated, and challenged in the pursuit of justice and communal harmony, alongside a robust resistance to the forces that seek to communalize and polarize Indian society.”
Sambhal, the authors of the report warn, is not an aberration, rather it is a preview. If unchallenged, the Sambhal model will become the blueprint for future communal engineering. The report is a call to document, resist, and refuse—to protect the republic from turning against its own.
The complete report may be read here.
Related:
Sambhal Custodial Death: A systemic failure exposed
Sambhal Mosque, Ajmer Dargah: how deep do we plunge into the abyss?