UP violence due to intelligence failure?

In this article senior journalist, Dilip Awasthi discusses the communal unrest and mob violence in Uttar Pradesh which resulted in large-scale arson, violence and organised attacks in the state capital. He further states that around 40 Muslim Bangladeshis who have been living and working in the famous non-vegetarian street-food joints for years have been arrested by the police for December 19-20 mob violence.

Lucknow: Lucknow's fabled Tunday Kababi, Sakhawat, Rahim and more than 30 other Awadhi food outlets are facing a peculiar crisis these days. Many of their cooks, waiters and maintenance staff is absconding. They are all Muslim Bangladeshis, who have been living and working in these famous non-vegetarian street-food joints for years. At least 40 of them have been arrested by the police for December 19-20 mob violence in the state capital.

After the dust settles, vexed issues are bound to hit the whodunit blind spot. Uttar Pradesh's Adityanath government is out to give a conspiracy twist to the Muslim backlash in several parts of the state. Police investigations so far on a wild hunt have rolled out a series of irrational theories.

Unable to justify the blatant intelligence failure, the police seem to pin all their hopes in framing out an organised plot to create communal unrest in UP. At many places a group of 40-50 odd hooligans, their faces veiled in some instances, merged in the crowd and started pelting stones, attacking public property and indulging in arson. This eventually triggered off mob violence. This very fact has given the police enough fuel to fire the conspiracy theory.

UP director general of police O.P. Singh has in a letter to the Home Ministry sought a ban and has confirmed on record that the violence was masterminded by Popular Front of India (PFI), an extremist organisation of Delhi. The police have arrested 23 PFI activists including its state president Waseem Ahmed. PFI's Delhi headquarters has rubbished police's claim.

Investigations claim that PFI has been active in UP for more than three years. It has been building its nexus amongst an estimated three to four lakh illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. The PFI handpicked the Bangladeshi youth and formed groups at the district level in towns like Lucknow, Kanpur, Varanasi, Bijnor, Meerut, Aligarh, Rampur, Muzzaffarnagar to fish in troubled times. Even if this is true, it points out at another intelligence failure because PFI was never mentioned in any reference earlier.

The police theory, however, stems from the fact that why had the miscreants cover their faces as seen in many videos shot by CCTV and also the news channels. Most of the Muslim protestors, who were equally if not more belligerent, did not attempt to hide their faces. "So what was so special about these handfuls of troublemakers?" That is probably one reason why the arrested Bangladeshis have been slapped cases in nearly 14 IPC sections or more ranging from crimes like treason, attempt to murder to the destruction of public property. But another moot point to be considered here is that whether a person, with almost terrorist like intentions, will be masquerading himself as a waiter or a dish-washer in a small-time roadside eatery?

Another unprecedented police action is underway simultaneously - an elaborate exercise to recover the cost of damages from the rioters and also those who called for such a protest. In compliance to CM Yogi's orders, notices have been served to 1,300 odd people to bear the cost of public damages worth over Rs 300 crore. The basis of these notices is an archived Mayawati government order of 2010, which was made but never used.

There are also complaints of police high-handedness against Muslims, which the present regime does not seem to be overly concerned about. BJP detractors feel that Yogi Aditynath will depend heavily on the Hindu card for his next electoral outing in 2022 and he has started shuffling the pack already.

They believe that the saffron-clad politician is hardly bothered about the increasing Muslim animosity which they choose to describe as slipping 'Trust Deficit' on the present dispensation both at the centre and state levels.

Also, read: A nightmare of Muslim hysteria