The Shahi Masjid in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh.
Credit: PTI Photo
Lucknow: The alleged change in the demography of communally sensitive Sambhal town in Uttar Pradesh triggered a political slugfest in the state with the saffron outfits and the BJP attributing it to the ‘appeasement politics’ pursued by the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Congress.
A judicial Commission, formed to investigate the violence in Sambhal during a court mandated survey of a mosque in which four people were killed, has, in its report, claimed that the Hindu population in the district declined from 45 per cent in 1947 to just 15 per cent at present while the Muslim population increased from 55 per cent to 85 per cent during the same period.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) on Friday staged a demonstration in the state capitol and burnt an effigy of the SP MP from Sambhal Zia-ur-Rehman Burq blaming him for engineering the violence in the town.
The BJP also jumped in the fray and said that the ‘appeasement politics’ pursued by the successive government in the past was responsible for the ‘demographic change’ in Sambhal.
‘’Sambhal has a history of communal riots….the Hindus were forced to leave the place as they did not feel safe there….the governments of the day did not provide them any protection,’’ a state BJP leader said.
The SP was quick to reject the charges and said that the BJP government wanted to distract attention of the people from its failure and therefore raising such issues.
Senior Muslim cleric Maulana Shabuddin Rizvi also rejected the report saying that Hindus might have left Sambhal in search of better prospects. ‘’The Hindus may have shifted elsewhere to provide better education to their children and in search of employment,’’ he added.
The panel submitted its report to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday.
Although the content of the 450-page report was not made public, according to the sources, the report contained details of history of communal riots in the town, change in its demography after independence and evidence of existence of a Hindu temple in the foundation of the mosque.