UP school teacher forces students to write ‘ I love Mohammed’ slogan

Lucknow: Amid the raging controversy over ‘I love Mohammed’ posters, a teacher at a school in Uttar Pradesh’s Sitapur district allegedly ‘forced’ some Hindu students to write the slogan ‘ I love Mohammed’.

According to the reports, the teacher, at the private school at Banveerpur village in the district, made the Hindu students write the slogan on the pretext of a slogan competition a couple of days back.

The matter came to light on Monday after the parents of the Hindu students approached the cops with a complaint in this regard.

Reports said that the Hindu students were also allegedly made to write a paragraph on the slogan.

Tension prevailed in the village after the students narrated the incident to their parents. A large number of local residents reached the school and registered their protest over the matter, reports said.

The school management, however, said that it had no knowledge of the matter and that the teacher might have organized the competition on her own.

Police said that a case was registered in this connection and that they have recorded the statements of the school management representatives, teachers, students and the parents. ‘’The matter is being investigated,’’ said a police official in Sitapur.

District education officials said that the lady teacher in question had been asked to explain the matter and was being shifted from there.

Posters containing the slogan ‘I love Mohammed’ had appeared in several towns across the state prompting the police to act against those behind it. In Bareilly town, violence had erupted on Friday after members of the Muslim community took to the streets to register their protest against the police action.

Police later arrested prominent Muslim cleric Maulana Touqir Raza and some others.