FACT-FINDING REPORT ON HALDWANI VIOLENCE OF FEBRUARY 8, 2024 AND ITS AFTERMATH

Violent incident occurred on 8.02.2024 in Banbhulpura, Haldwani. It was not a sudden incident. It was the outcome of a steady rise in communal tempers in the state of Uttarakhand over recent years. The state government led by the Chief Minister Pushkar Dhami and radical right wing citizen groups have together contributed to the spread of a highly polarizing narrative with many disturbing elements. One strand of this discourse is about recreating Uttarakhand as the Holy Land of Hindus which would have no place for other religious minorities. Other strands of this divisive discourse include unsupported extravagant claims of a series of Jihads allegedly waged by the Muslim population of the state, including Love Jihad, Land Jihad, Vyapar Jihad, and Mazaar Jihad.

FACT-FINDING REPORT ON HALDWANI VIOLENCE OF FEBRUARY 8, 2024 AND ITS AFTERMATH

 

A citizen fact finding team comprising members of the following collective visited Haldwani, Uttarakhand on 14th Feb 2024

 

1) Association for Protection of Civil Rights: APCR: Nadeem Khan and Mohd Mobashir

2) Karawan-e-Mohabbat: Navsharan Singh, Ashok Sharma, Zahid Qadri, Kumar Nikhil, Harsh Mander

 

Because the area directly affected by violence on February 8 continued to be under curfew, it was not possible for the team members to directly meet and talk to the affected people. We also reached out to members of the district administration however they either did not respond or informed us that they were very busy and therefore unable to meet us. Therefore this is an interim report based on the conversations with a large number of members of civil society, journalists, writers and lawyers; and telephone conversations with a few affected persons who spoke to us on the condition of anonymity. 

 

Based on these extensive discussions the following are the principal preliminary findings of the team:-

 

1) The violent incident that occurred on 8.02.2024 in Banbhulpura, Haldwani was not a sudden incident. It was the outcome of a steady rise in communal tempers in the state of Uttarakhand over recent years. The state government led by the Chief Minister Pushkar Dhami and radical right wing citizen groups have together contributed to the spread of a highly polarizing narrative with many disturbing elements.

One strand of this discourse is about recreating Uttarakhand as the Holy Land of Hindus which would have no place for other religious minorities. Other strands of this divisive discourse include unsupported extravagant claims of a series of Jihads allegedly waged by the Muslim population of the state, including Love Jihad, Land Jihad, Vyapar Jihad, and Mazaar Jihad.

One consequence of this discourse has been calls for economic and social boycott of Muslims, and the eviction of Muslim tenants from houses and shops and demands and threats for them to leave the state.

Along with this the Chief Minister has made repeated declarations that his government would take the strongest action against “Love jihad” and all the other elleged forms of Jihad.

The Chief Minister also has proudly declared as a significant accomplishment of his government the destruction of 3000 Mazaars, while choosing by contrast mostly silence about unauthorized Hindu religious structures in forest and Nazul lands.

 

2) Prior to the incident of 08.02.2024 Haldwani, which has a significant Muslim population, has witnessed in recent months a series of small communal clashes and disputes. There has also been a prolonged dispute around claims by the Indian Railways that the large settlements of substantial Muslim residents are located in Railway land. The proposed eviction has been stayed by the order of the Supreme Court.

More recently disputes arose about the legal ownership of tracts of urban land in Haldwani, again in Muslim majority areas. The people in occupation of these lands claim to be rightful lessees of the land whereas the state government has taken the position that these are Nazul (Government) lands.

 

3) The immediate dispute relates to around six acres of land claimed to be rightfully leased by one Sophiya Malik. The state government on the other hand claims that this is Nazul land. In one portion of this land is located a 20 year old Mosque and Madarassa.

In recent weeks eviction notices were peacefully served on other residential buildings and demolitions were undertaken without resistance. However when on 30.01.2024 eviction notices were served to vacate the Mosque and Madarassa within a short period of two days community members gathered and peacefully protested.

This was followed by a delegation of Ulemas of the city who met the Municipal Commissioner Haldwani and pleaded against the propsoed eviction and demolition. However when no agreement was reached, on 4.02.2024 the Municipal office sealed the Masjid and the Madarasa.

On 6.02.2024 Sophiya Malik who claims to be the righful lessee of the disputed land on which Mosque and Madarasa are located moved the High Court in Nainital. The matter was heard on 8.02.2024 by a single judge vacation bench and was admitted with no order passed, fixing for substantive hearing an early date of 14.02.2024.

 

4) Matters continued to be peaceful with the local community satisfied with the intervention of the High Court to resolve the question of ownership, and until then securing the Mosque and Madrassa even though these were sealed.

However, without warning on the evening of 08.02.2024 officers of the Municipal office with significant police protection arrived with bulldozers and a large contingent of Municipal workers, to demolish the sealed Mosque and Madrassa, despite the matter being sub-judicial.

There was immediate anguish expressed by the residents, and a group of women residents stood before the bulldozers in a bid to prevent the demolitions. However both female and male police persons reportedly not just forcefully removed them but also beat and dragged them. This further inflamed the sentiments of the local community.

Their anguish was still further aggravated when their plea that at least the Quran and other sacred properties in the Mosque be respectfully handed over to the Imam before the demolition was also brushed aside.

 

5) Once the demolitions began some members of the community threw stones at the police. Some Municipal workers and press persons reporting the incident were also reportedly injured. There is also video evidence that the police also resorted to extensive stone throwing on the crowd.

 

6) Violence continued to escalate rapidly. Enraged groups of men set alight vehicles parked near the police station and parts of the police station were also set ablaze.

 

7) The police resorted to firing. It may be noted that prior to firing, standard crowd control protocols require the police to resort first to less lethal modes of crowd dispersal such as lathi charge, tear gas and water cannons. It is further disputed when the police actually began firing and when formal orders of “shoot at sight” were made. As a consequence of the police firing several people were both injured and reportedly six people were killed. According to eyewitnesses several hundreds of rounds were fired and local people believe that the number of people injured and killed may be significantly higher than the official claims. However we are unable to verify this because we could not enter the affected areas and meet the officials concerned.

 

8) At 9 p.m. on 8.02.2024 curfew was imposed and this continued without letup even six days later when our team visited Haldwani. A curfew of this length of time particularly in a settlement with a large number of low income daily wage earners is causing enormous avoidable hardship and suffering to over one lakh residents under this punishing curfew. Our team believes that much more extensive relief should have been extended by the district administration and arrangements made for periodic relaxations, particularly for women and children.

 

9) Both senior members of the civil society including the local journalists, and the people from the affected areas that we were able to make telephonic contact with, reported that the police entered an estimated 300 homes ostensibly for searches but they reportedly brutally beat up residents including women and children and extensively damaged properties both within the homes and the vehicles parked outside. Large numbers of young men, some women and juveniles are also reportedly beaten and detained and taken to unreported locations for interrogation. As a result the entire area is engulfed in fear and dread. This is further aggravated because of the internet shutdown which again continued right till the day of our visit. This, along with the unmitigated curfew, has not allowed the local residents to communicate their fears, concerns and grievances and also report the alleged incidents of vandalism and beatings.

 

(Date of First Publication- 15 February, 2024)

 

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আমরা: এক সচেতন প্রয়াস
AAMRA is an amalgamation of multidisciplinary team of researchers and activists erstwhile worked as an assemblage of movement, research and activism. Popular abbreviation of AAMRA is, An Assemblage of Movement Research and Appraisal.
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