Agra: The recent arrest of Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui, an Islamic scholar and senior cleric of western Uttar Pradesh, was opposed by students of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) and members of civil societies in Aligarh.
Maulana Siddiqui was arrested from Meerut by Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on charges of running a conversion syndicate, on the clues obtained from the arrested activist, Umar Gautam, during an interrogation the by ATS.
A group of students from Aligarh Muslim University took out a protest march on the AMU campus on Friday against the arrest of Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui. They warned district administration that they would intensify their agitation if Maulana was not released at the earliest.
AMU students gathered at ‘Bab-e-Syed’ gate of the university and reached Jama Masjid on the campus and offered Friday namaaz there before starting their protest march till ‘Bab-e-Syed’ gate to press for their demand. The angry students also raised slogans against Islamophobia.
Police was deployed at the Bab-e-Syed gate where students read out charter of their demand addressed to the President and called for stopping the witch hunt of Muslim preachers, activists, Ulemas, political and community leaders. “Students would not settle until Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui and activist Umar Gautam were released,” said a student leader at Bab-e-Syed gate.
Meanwhile, members of civil societies, including former president of Aligarh Muslim University Student Union, M Salman Imtiaz, also staged a separate protest and handed over a memorandum addressed to the governor of Uttar Pradesh to express their anguish for uncalled arrest of Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui.
“Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui has been illegally arrested in a false case of illegal religious conversion. It is all part of a conspiracy hatched by the ruling party in the state. All are free to have their religious belief and practice religion of their choice. The Muslim preachers never force others to accept Islam by coercion or threat,” stated Salman M Imtiaz, the former president of Aligarh Muslim University Student Union.
In the memorandum, they said the arrest of some Muslim clerics over alleged unlawful religious conversions and the “harassment and eviction of Muslims in Assam on the citizenship issue were creating an atmosphere of fear and insecurity in the minds of Muslims”.
“Such witch-hunting of minorities would pose a threat to the peace and stability in the country,” the memorandum added.
In Lucknow, the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad asked people to share any information related to Siddiqui and another accused Mohammad Umar Gautam.
The ATS has so far arrested 11 people, including Siddiqui, in connection with a religious conversion racket case. Those arrested were booked under relevant sections of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2020 and the Indian Penal Code, the officials said. Hindustan Times
