UP Police probes ‘larger conspiracy’ to disturb peace during Kanwar Yatra

LUCKNOW: Police are investigating possibilities of a larger conspiracy to disrupt communal peace behind the Bjinor incident in which a mazaar was allegedly vandalised by two youths wearing saffron scarves. Later, the two were identified as Mohammad Kamaal (35) and his brother Mohammad Adil (23).
This was the third incident of its type to have happened in western UP where the concentration of kanwar yatris is more.On July 25, a Kanwar Yatra procession was blocked from passing through a Muslim locality in Uttar Pradesh’s Moradabad.
The standoff in Ibrahimpur village was resolved after official intervention and involved local devotees who had collected water from a nearby area.
Before that on July 23, two men belonging to a different community allegedly spat on their tableau near a highway police outpost in Meerut.
Additional director general (ADG), law and Order, Prashant Kumar, said irrespective of the provocation that led the two accused to do what they did at the mazaar, the fact that "they sported saffron scarves clearly establishes an element of mischief on their part to give the incident a communal hue". “Had the police not acted promptly, worked out the case quickly and also ensured a curb on rumour mongering, the situation could have deteriorated. Hence, it is essential to ensure that case is thoroughly probed to unearth the nefarious design behind the incident, if any,” he said.
The ADG also said that all the police chiefs have been instructed to keep their intelligence units on alert and immediately crack down on such incidents.
Kumar also said that a forensic examination of the mobile phones recovered from the duo is underway to trace the whereabouts of their acquaintances.
On Sunday, the duo, Kamaal and Adil, reportedly wearing saffron scarves, allegedly tried to damage the Ghosiowala and Jalal Shah Wala’s tombs, which come under the Sherkot police station of Bijnor district. They allegedly vandalised the ‘mazaar’ (tomb) and set fire to the curtains and ‘chaadars’.