Meerut: Muslims tired of communal bias want to sell property and leave

Posters and banners saying “I am a Muslim. I am selling my house. Every small incident here is given a communal colour,” have come up in the Muslim dominated localities of Lisari village in Meerut. Residents here say they want to sell off their property and leave the area due to the administration’s communal bias against them. Reports suggest that though posters have come up outside 10 houses, there are around 100 families who have made up their mind to shift out of the village.

“It is not possible to live in this village any more. The local administration is biased and acting as per the directives of the political leaders. The police is persecuting us because we are Muslims,” said Haneef, one of the residents of the village who has put up one such poster outside his house.

The Muslims claim that small disputes like collision of two vehicles or a verbal spat with shopkeepers is given a communal colour. The police sides with the other side. “We cannot live in this atmosphere anymore. So, we have decided to leave this village where we were born, grown up and built assets,” Haneef told this reporter on telephone from Meerut on Thursday evening.

The residents cite two incidents which have prompted them to move out of this village.

Last week two groups of motorcycle collided. Both groups approached the police. The Muslims claim that police did not lodge their FIR but on the basis of FIR lodged by Hindus, two Muslims were arrested.

In second incident, Muslims allege, a brawl broke out between a shopkeeper and some Muslims on June 21. The shopkeeper lodged a complaint against Sarfraz, Idris, Shami and Sameer following which two of them were arrested. When the other party tried to lodge counter-FIR they were asked to “go out of police station.”

Samajwadi party law maker Rafiq Ansari said that police was acting under the directions of local Bharatiya Janata Party leaders. “Why did it allow one party to lodge FIR and denied the same right to other party. This is done because the other party is Muslim. I am a legislator of this region and spoke to the senior police officer but no one gave a satisfactory answer,” he said.

The ruling BJP claims this is all drama to ‘gain limelight’. Laxmikant Bajpayi, former BJP state president said the wording of the posters has a political overtone. “If someone wants to sell his property he will just say “property on sale” but posters talks about communal tension. This is done with a design to mislead you (media) people,” he said.

SSP Rajesh Pandey expectedly refuted the allegations by Muslims. He said there were some conflict and complaints have been lodged. Whosoever will be found guilty, action will be taken against them, he said.