‘Go to Pakistan’: UP Police thrashes muezzin for prayer call

Muzaffarnagar: A police officer allegedly assaulted and thrashed a muezzin here in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh for giving adhan for the early morning prayer. The incident of the masjid official getting thrashed was captured by a CCTV camera, a report by Maktoob Media stated.

The CCTV footage shows a police officer, identified as Sub-Inspector Vinod Chaudhary, pushing and striking the muezzin, who is identified as Muhammad Irfan, of Medina Masjid in Sarwat.

A muezzin is the official in a masjid who gives adhan, the prayer call, five times a day.

Irfan, the survivor of the police attack, said that SI Chaudhary arrived with four or five constables at the mosque after he gave the morning prayer call. The officer thrashed him, dragged him to the police station, and continued beating him. According to him, Chaudhary used Islamophobic slurs and told him to go to Pakistan if he wanted to give prayer calls. He also says that, though other police officers stood around, they did not object to Chaudhary’s assault on him.

Irfan also said that the SI kept him in illegal custody for hours and released him only after local residents reached the station and demanded his release.

The officer accused him of giving adhan illegally while the mosque had written permission from the district administration to operate, Irfan said. He also said that he tried to show the official the formal permission, but he was in no mind to listen, but to thrash Irfan, asking who gave him permission to give the prayer call.

Muslim community members in the area say that the incident shows the pattern in Yogi Adityanath-ruled Uttar Pradesh, where routine Muslim religious practices are treated as provocations, despite them being fully compliant with the law, Maktoob Media reported.