Saturday, 27 January 2018

Kasganj violence: All you need to know

Kasganj violence: All you need to know
Kasganj violence: Fresh clashes broke out in the district on Saturday morning, with anti-social elements running riots, vandalizing properties and torching shops.
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By: Express Web Desk | New Delhi | Published: January 27, 2018 2:11 pm
 Uttar pradesh Kasganj violence: All you need to know Police patrol Kasganj Friday night after the clash. (Express Photo/Praveen Khanna)
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The Uttar Pradesh Police on Saturday arrested nine people in connection with Kasganj violence that resulted in the death of a man while another was injured. The clashes broke out between two groups in Kasganj district of Uttar Pradesh over an unauthorised bike rally organised to mark the Republic Day.

A special team has been formed by the UP Police to apprehend the remaining culprits for inciting violence in the area. The developments come after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath urged people to maintain peace and harmony, directing officials to take strict action in the matter.

Where is Kasganj?

Kasganj is a district in western UP which was created on April 17, 2008 by dividing Etah district, and falls under Aligarh division. The district is surrounded by Farurkabad in the east, Aligarh in the west, Etah district in north and Badaun in the south. In order to maintain law and order, the district has 10 police stations. The city is over 200 km away from the national capital.

READ | One killed, one injured after shots fired during communal clash

What led to the violence?

A ‘Tiranga yatra’ was organised by Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP)-student wing of the ruling BJP in the state and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) to mark the 69th Republic Day. The procession was being organised without permission from the administration on Friday. The clash occurred after a group in Badu Nagar objected to certain slogans being raised by motorcycle-borne participants of the “Tiranga Yatra”, which had started from the Bilram Gate area. According to police, another trigger for the clash was an altercation in which a member of one group allegedly slapped a youth of the other group.

Chandan Gupta (22) died after being hit on the chest by a bullet in clashes that ensued, and Noushad was admitted to a hospital in neighbouring Aligarh district after being shot in the leg.

More Violence In Kasganj, Shops Torched

What’s the current situation now?

As police parties patrol the area, the situation on Friday was contained after a team deployed for Republic Day celebrations at the Reserve Police lines, 16 km away, rushed to the spot. R P Singh, District Magistrate, Kasganj, said, “Our main priority is to ensure that peace is maintained.”

A mob torched some shops and vandalised property while returning from the cremation of Chandan. While the police assured that the situation was under control in the area, traders have reportedly been asked to keep their shops shut and remain indoors.was over right of way
A video in the possession of some residents of Baddu Nagar, purportedly of the incident, shows a group of around 60 people, with some of them carrying the Tricolour and saffron flags and shouting: “Bike toh yahin se jayegi (The bikes will pass through here).” A flag pole can be seen nearby.
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Written by Abhishek Angad | Kasganj | Updated: January 28, 2018 8:01 am
 Kasganj violence: Both sides had Tricolour, fight was over right of way Security forces patrol Kasganj town, Saturday. (Express Photo by Praveen Khanna)
Minutes before an unauthorised “Tiranga Yatra” on motorcycles entered Baddu Nagar in Kasganj, triggering a communal clash, residents of the Muslim-dominated locality had arranged chairs on the road and were getting ready to hoist the Tricolour on Republic Day, senior police officers and witnesses told The Sunday Express.

Members of the bike rally, however, demanded that the chairs be removed and a path cleared for them to move on, residents said. “They were shouting slogans, we requested them to let our celebrations finish first. But they were adamant and did not leave,” said Mohammed Munazir Rafi, a resident and advocate.

Speaking to The Indian Express, IGP Dhruva Kant Thakur, who reached Kasganj from Lucknow on Saturday morning, said, “Members of the Muslim community were about to hoist the national flag when the incident took place.”

READ | Politics of Kasganj: Agrarian dominance, OBC control

A video in the possession of some residents of Baddu Nagar, purportedly of the incident, shows a group of around 60 people, with some of them carrying the Tricolour and saffron flags and shouting: “Bike toh yahin se jayegi (The bikes will pass through here).” A flag pole can be seen nearby.

”I had contributed Rs 200 for the Republic Day celebration here,” said Rafi.

More Violence In Kasganj, Shops Torched

”In the morning, I left home to attend the flag-hoisting ceremony at Kasganj court. When I returned, chairs had been arranged on the road for the Republic Day programme in our locality. Suddenly, a group of around 50-60 people arrived on bikes and started demanding that the chairs be removed. They were also shouting slogans,” he said.

After the group refused to leave, said the advocate, an argument ensued. “We asked them to join the celebration. But many people had gathered and soon, there was some pushing and shoving. Then they left their bikes here and went away. I called the Kasganj police station, and apprised them of the situation when they arrived 25 minutes later,” said Rafi.

READ | Fresh violence in Kasganj: Six held, prohibitory orders imposed

According to Kasganj Additional SP Pavitra Mohan Tripathi, police separated the two groups. However, he said, the rally participants regrouped and took a detour to reach Tehsil road, another Muslim-dominated area, where residents thought they had arrived to retaliate. “This triggered the shooting incident in which a 28-year-old man was killed,” said Tripathi.

On Saturday evening, residents of Baddu Nagar said they were waiting for the situation to normalise before approaching police with their version.

READ | Kasganj violence: All you need to know

”The situation could have been sorted out but it ended in a big problem,” said an elderly resident who did not wish to be named.

According to Rafi, a similar rally was organised on Independence Day last year. “But there was no problem as we had not put out chairs at that time. We are deshbhakts, and now we are being portrayed as deshdrohis. In the end, because of this situation, we could not hoist the Tricolour on Janaury 26,” he said.

Politics of Kasganj: Agrarian dominance, OBC control
Such has been the control of the agrarian community in the area that a Lodh-Rajput candidate has won every election from Kasganj Assembly segment since 1977, barring 2007 state elections when Hasratullah Shervani of the BSP was elected.
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Written by Lalmani Verma | New Delhi | Updated: January 28, 2018 6:47 am
 kasganj, up communal clashes, uttar pradesh, obc, hindu muslim violence, indian express Situation tense in Kasganj on Saturday. (Express Photo by Praveen Khanna)
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Kasganj, where one person died in communal clashes on Friday, and violence was reported on Saturday, lies in an area of near-total domination of agrarian communities — Lodh-Rajputs, Kachhi (Shakya) and Yadavs, all OBC communities — along with a significant presence of people from the minority community.

Such has been the control of the agrarian community in the area that a Lodh-Rajput candidate has won every election from Kasganj Assembly segment since 1977, barring 2007 state elections when Hasratullah Shervani of the BSP was elected.

While the then Mayawati-led BSP government had carved out a separate district from Etah in 2008 and named the new district Kanshiram Nagar — the Samajwadi Party (SP) government of Akhilesh Yadav renamed it Kasganj in 2012 — Kasganj town, where the incidents of communal violence has been reported from, comes under Etah Lok Sabha constituency.

Barring 1980 and 1984, Etah has sent a candidate from either of the three OBC communities to Lok Sabha in every election since 1977: Mahadeepak Singh Shakya (1977, 1989, 1991, 1996, 1998), Devendra Singh Yadav (1999, 2004), Kalyan Singh (2009), and his son Rajveer (2014). Rajveer, the present MP from Etah, was in attendance at today’s funeral of Abhishek Gupta, who died in Friday’s firing.

kasganj, up communal clashes, uttar pradesh, obc, hindu muslim violence, indian express
While Mahadeepak is from Kachhi community, Devendra comes from Yadav and the father-son Singh duo from the Lodh community, reflecting the political grip of these three agrarian communities in and around the area.

The two exceptions were Pyarey Miyan of Lok Dal in 1984 — he won against the odds, when Congress swept the then undivided UP after Indira Gandhi’s assassination, winning 83 of 85 seats; Lok Dal chief Charan Singh won the other seat — and Congress’s Malik Mohammad Mishir Khan in 1980.

Former UP CM Kalyan Singh was elected to the Assembly from Kasganj in 1993, the elections soon after the demolition of the Babri Masjid — Singh was the CM when the mosque was razed the year before. Singh, however, resigned from Kasganj while retaining his membership from Atrauli.

While BJP won Etah Lok Sabha seat in four consecutive elections between 1989 and 1998, and again in 2014, the party won Kasganj Assembly seat in 1991, 1993, 1996 and 2017.

Although Mayawati carved out Kasganj as Kanshiram district, comprising the Assembly segments of Amapur, Patiyali and Kasganj, the party did not reap the political benefits even in the state elections immediately afterward: in 2012, SP won Kasganj and Patiyali, the BSP bagged only Amapur in 2012.

In 2017, the BJP swept the seats, ahead of SP candidates in all three seats.

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