However, the local police swiftly refuted these claims, stating that there was no evidence to support the allegation of a targeted communal attack.

Police investigation and police presence

The incident that sparked these tensions began when a video surfaced on social media, showing minor boys from the Muslim community engaged in stone-pelting near the Kotwa area. The video, which was later identified as CCTV footage from one of the local houses, was shared widely, leading to a social media uproar. Hindu Families in Kotwa, in particular, claimed that the boys were indulging in “brick-batting” with the intent to create unrest and provoke violence against Hindu properties. However, the police dismissed these claims, focusing on the fact that the boys had targeted street bulbs and lights and not residential properties.

Following the release of the video, the Lohta police registered a case and began a probe into the incident. The police focused on determining whether the boys had deliberately targeted anything other than the streetlights. As part of the investigation, police reviewed the CCTV footage from the area and initiated further inquiries. The authorities have emphasised that they are maintaining a vigilant presence in the locality to prevent any escalation of tensions.

Allegation of Hindu families in fear: claims of targeting and forced migration

Amid the ongoing investigation, around 15 Hindu families residing in Kotwa Village have claimed to media persons that they are living in constant fear and after the killing of Bhaiyalal. a Hindu youth from the area, whose body was found in a partially burnt condition earlier last month in February, 2025.

According to this reportage, these claims of insecurity had led to CCTV cameras being installed in some homes. Additionally, a local elder alleged that a specific area near a temple had been deliberately turned into a garbage dumping ground.

Police investigation: the motive behind the stone-pelting incident

As the investigation progressed, the police began to piece together the events leading up to the stone-pelting incident. ACP Rohaniya Sanjiv Kumar Sharma confirmed that the CCTV footage showed the Muslim minors throwing stones at streetlights, with no indication of targeting houses or attempting to incite violence. The footage also revealed that the minors were attempting to steal the bulbs after breaking the streetlights, which pointed to the possibility of a theft rather than a planned communal disturbance. All further necessary legal action will be taken,  Times of India reported

Stone-pelting incident confirmed, theft attempt by minors: Police

Following the release of the CCTV footage, Neetu Katyayan, the ADCP of Varanasi Gomti Zone, clarified the police’s stance on the matter. She confirmed that the boys shown in the footage were indeed minors and that the motive behind their actions was theft—specifically, the intention to steal the streetlight bulbs.

The footage clearly showed the boys taking the bulbs after breaking the streetlights. The police have been investigating the incident in detail and emphasized that there was no evidence to support claims of any communal targeting or violence, reported Punjab Kesari

9 arrested in Kotwa stone pelting incident

The Lohta police arrested nine teenagers in connection with the stone-pelting incident at Abhilash Singh’s house in Kotwa village. The arrested individuals, aged between 12 and 15 years, were captured on CCTV footage during the act. According to Lohta SHO Praveen Kumar, the police swiftly identified and apprehended all the suspects. After their arrest, the teenagers were presented before the court and subsequently sent to the juvenile correction home in Ramnagar, as reported

Murder of Bhaiyalal Patel fuels communal unrest in Kotwa Village

The tension in Kotwa Village can also be traced back to the murder of Bhaiyalal Patel, a Hindu youth, which occurred earlier in February. On February 14, 2025, the Lohata police made significant progress in the investigation of Patel’s murder, arresting four individuals—Ashraf Ali, Abdul Kadir, Sultan, and Shakeel—who were accused of killing Patel and burning his body. According to the police, the accused had consumed alcohol with Patel on the night of February 10, near the Mazar of Barkat Shah Banarasi. When Patel refused to give them money for more alcohol, they allegedly attacked him, pushed him from a wall, and ultimately caused his death. To conceal the crime, the accused then attempted to burn Patel’s body before dumping it in a mustard field, Times of India reported

Hindu families demand permanent PAC presence in village

Over the past few days, on demands made by affected residents, the Uttar Pradesh government decided to deploy the PAC (Provincial Armed Constabulary) in Kotwa village in response to growing communal tensions allegation.

The media coverage so far has primarily focused on the perspective of the Hindu families, with no statements from the families of the arrested minors and other villagers. One villager pointed out that no peace meetings had been held by the administration in the past two years.

Additional CP leads march in Kotwa village ahead of Ramzan and Holi

Besides these allegations, ahead of Ramzan and Holi festivals, Additional CP Dr. S. Chansya conducted a route march through Kotwa village on Saturday evening i.e. March 8, accompanied by a significant police presence. Former Rohania MLA Surendra Narayan Singh, along with BJP officials, also visited the village to engage with the local community. He reportedly appealed to the residents to celebrate the festivals peacefully and in harmony. During the march, several key officials, including DCP Varuna Gene Chandrakant Meena, ACP Rohania Sanjeev Sharma, and Additional CP Dr. M. Channappa, were present, along with station in-charges from Manduadih, Rohania, and Lohta, as well as PAC jawans.

A peace meeting was held later at IMA, Lahurabir, where Dr. S. Channappa addressed the villagers, urging them to cooperate with the police for a peaceful festival. He emphasized that if any issues arose, the police should be contacted immediately and advised not to believe in rumors. DCP Kashi Zone Gaurav Bansal, ACPs Dhananjay Mitra, Pragya Pathak, and Gaurav Kumar, along with the head priest, also attended the meeting to reinforce the message of maintaining peace and unity throughout the festivities, as reported

Related:

Gyan Vapi Masjid: Where can we go when our elders are buried here ask anguished Muslims from Varanasi

‘No Entry’ for non-Hindus at Varanasi Ghats?

Puja in Gyanvapi: Mosque Committee announces bandh, Shahr Mufti Batin Nomani appeals for peace

The post Kotwa Varanasi: A viral video of Muslim minors pelting stones on street lights leads to heightened security, police deny communal motive appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Image Courtesy: alaraby.co.uk

In a security clampdown to shut down protests against President Abdel-Fattah-el-Sissi, the authorities have arrested at least 3,000 people since September 20, while authorities acknowledge only 1,000 arrests, say several human rights groups. The sheer volume of the clampdown is being seen as a major escalation, even for this regime that has routinely targeted dissenting voices.

This ‘brute monitoring’ has had officials question everyone from protestors on the street to major government critics and even school-going children. Amnesty International claimed that at least 111 children, some as young as 11, were arrested in the crackdown.

Protests outraged against Sissi’s leadership for squandering public funds on palaces and hotels in a country where 32.5% of the population was below the poverty line.

In a similar scene from what happened in Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370, the Egyptian authorities blocked political and news websites and disrupted internet services to stop the protestors from communicating or documenting government atrocities. The wave of mass arrests paired along with the communication blockade has spread fear among the Egyptians, Sarah Leah Whitson, the Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch said.

HaseinBaoumi, Egypt researcher for Amnesty International said that the Egyptian authorities were trying to filter any sort of opponents or even critics from among the general population.

In the clampdown what human rights activists called unconstitutional, all the detainees had been added to a single charge sheet and accused of spreading false information, misusing social media, participating in unauthorized protests and aiding a terrorist group. Should they go to trial, it would be the largest criminal prosecution of protesters in the history of Egypt.

Veteran activist Alaa Abdel Fattah was also arrested and tortured in custody, a move that showed how far Egyptian officials could go to silence government critics. After being blindfolded, stripped to his undergarments and beaten ruthlessly, he was told that prison was made for ‘people like him’. His lawyer, Mohammed El Baqir too was detained when he went to represent him. SanaaSeif, Fattah’s sister was also briefly arrested for refusing the security officials to search her phone. In the past Fattah had been spared this level of physical abuse protected by his profile and his other lawyer believes that his arrest is a message to the country – toe the line or face the music.

In a chilling replay of what happened in Kashmir, the Egyptian authorities have detained politicians, journalists, women and children in the clampdown. Foreign nationals, including two British and American university students too were rounded up by officials in the clampdown.

Aaron Boehm, a US citizen said, “We were stopped by a plain-clothes officer who asked to see our phones. I unlocked my phone and handed it to him. He went through every single social media app I had.” Later, Boehm was blindfolded and taken to a detention facility where officials accused him of espionage. He said, “They gave two justifications. Firstly, that my sharing of news articles constituted sharing intelligence with a foreign state, and secondly that my working at an NGO was demonstrative of my intent to undermine the Egyptian regime.”

During his detention that lasted four days, he met people from the Netherlands, Jordan, Turkey, Yemen and Eritrea, of which some were later released. Boehm said he was lucky to not be physically abused for he was from the US, but he did see evidence of torture, including sticks laden with blood and screams of other inmates. He was deported from Egypt on October 1.

In the past, Egypt had seen vehement protests were crowds gathered to overthrow the dictatorship of President Hosni Mubarak. These protests led to his ouster. In 2013, the government passed a law banning unauthorized protests and since then not many demonstrations of this magnitude have taken place in Egypt.

The current protests seemed to have been fuelled by Mohamed Ali, a previous contractor with the army and now living in self-imposed exile addressing people through his Facebook videos.

Communication Blockade

Drawing parallels with the communication blockade in Kashmir which is still under siege for more than two months after the abrogation of Article 370, the Egyptian authorities seem to have taken a leaf from our book. Netblocks, a company that monitors major internet disruptions, has said that more than 40 percent users are facing difficulty in connecting to social media platforms.

Around 600 websites are being meddled with of which they have restricted access to BBC’s Arabic website, US-based Alhurra News and Facebook Messenger.

The UN called for protection of free speech under articles 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In their 2015 Joint Declaration on Freedom of Expression and Responses to Conflict Situations, UN experts and rapporteurs declared that, even in times of conflict, “using communications ‘kill switches’ (i.e. shutting down entire parts of communications systems) can never be justified under human rights law.”

Arbitrary, Unauthorized Arrests

Information from lawyers say that uniformed and plainclothes security officers randomly stopped passersby forcing them to show the contents of their phones and social media accounts. Anyone with antigovernment slogans or posts was held. Some are merely being caught for being in the ‘wrong place at the wrong time’.

The detainees are being held in the National Security Agency’s secret detention centers or camps of the Central Security Forces at al-Darrasa, al-Gabal, al-Asfar and al-Salam which lawyers and family members cannot visit.

International law calls for detainees to be taken to a judge promptly, within 48 hours, but Egyptian law that doesn’t follow that doesn’t meet international standards, detainees are only allowed to meet State Security Prosecution in large numbers where prosecutors order their detention without judicial orders.

Human Rights under Threat throughout the World

Apart from the situations emerging in Kashmir and Egypt, reports coming out of Colombia say that though the drop in assassinations of human rights defenders has reduced in the country, there has been an increase in death threats and other non-lethal acts of violence that are being ignored by the government.

Saudi Arabia has been openly condemned for its worsening record for misuse of torture, unlawful detentions and unfair trials of critics; the most recent being that of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Similar reports seem to be coming from Syria, in which Christians face a threat from Turkey. 

Closer to home, 600,000 Rohingya Muslims face a situation of genocide in Myanmar.

At home, 19,00,000 persons left ‘stateless’ by the government of India, lie in detention camps bearing the burden of proof to prove themselves to be the citizens of India.
 
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