Bareilly gripped by fear amid more arrests, deserted markets, locked homes

Markets are deserted without customers. Many houses in the area remain locked. Families of several people who have been arrested are living in fear. Repeated appeals are being made to the authorities to stop the demolition of houses.

Even five days after violence broke out following the “I Love Muhammad” controversy, Bareilly has not returned to peace. Signs of unrest are still visible on the streets and in the markets of the affected areas. “We don’t know when things will return to normal,” said 70-year-old Raza ur Rahman, who has been running a bookstore in the area since 1995. Police are everywhere. People are scared. No one wants to come to this area, he added.

Following the violence, many people left their homes. Those who remain are not stepping outside, said Shabban, another shopkeeper in the area. Family members of some of those arrested said they are in a state of uncertainty, not knowing what to do.

With the latest detentions, the total number of arrests has risen to 82. Police said that nine more supporters of Maulana Tauqeer Raza Khan, chief of the Ittehad-e-Millat Council (IMC), were arrested for their alleged involvement in the violent protests that took place on September 26. Among them are two individuals who sustained leg injuries from gunfire.

Congress MP Imran Masood from Saharanpur said he had been placed under house arrest even before his planned visit to Bareilly. According to Saharanpur Police, security personnel were deployed around the residences of the MP and Samajwadi Party leader Shanawaz Khan after they received information about possible law and order issues.

Saharanpur (City) Superintendent of Police Vyom Bindal told the newspaper that they had “not put him under house arrest but have just deployed our forces”.

Imran Masood said that he and Shanawaz were about to travel to Bareilly by train, planning to return within two hours. However, they were stopped by the authorities, citing an unfavourable situation. He remarked that their intention was to help restore peace, not to escalate tensions.

Masood also stated that he strongly opposed making political announcements through mosque loudspeakers, stressing that a mosque is a place of worship, not a platform to promote political agendas. He further criticised IMC chief Maulana Tauqeer Khan in this regard.

Meanwhile, the Opposition criticised the way the Yogi Adityanath government handled the issue.

They said the government does not want peace. According to them, what the authorities want is to keep the issue burning and build propaganda around it. They added that this could be seen earlier in Sambhal and now in Bareilly as well. Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Ajay Rai alleged that the Yogi government was trying to divert attention from Rahul Gandhi’s accusations of vote theft.

The clashes began on September 4 in Kanpur’s Mohalla Sayyid Nagar area, over a banner reading “I Love Muhammad” put up during Eid Milad-un-Nabi celebrations. Hindutva groups objected to it, claiming it was a new practice and declaring it unacceptable. The situation escalated after UP Police allegedly filed one-sided cases against Muslim youths, arresting 24 of them.

The arrests sparked widespread protests across the state, which grew into what became known as the “I Love Muhammad Campaign.” The campaign soon spread to other states, including Uttarakhand and Gujarat, where police also began taking action against banners and posters related to it.