Maulana Mahmood Madani, general secretary of the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, said that it is a matter of grave concern that at a time when the entire country is in the grip of a pandemic, the Delhi police are on a spree to arrest youths and activists who were in the forefront of anti-CAA agitation.
Mr. Madani was speaking at a meeting of the orgnisation’s Central Working Committee at Deoband in Uttar Pradesh.
“We condemn in the strongest terms Delhi Police’s continuous hounding of activists and urge the Centre to put a stop on these unlawful spree of arrests forthwith and release all those who have been arrested in this connection,” Mr. Madani said.
The Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind also demanded that the Centre withdraw sections of the UAPA slapped on the arrested activists and that it should give due compensation to those who died due to police atrocities.
“Jamiat Ulama, which always believes in peaceful and democratic struggle, appreciates the peaceful agitation of the anti-CAA protesters and it has never approved violent means. However, the government and the police had adopted unlawful means to crush this peaceful movement. In addition to the excessive use of force, the police also slapped harsh Acts against the peaceful protesters which is highly condemnable,” the organisation said in a statement.
The outfit also demanded that Muslims be allowed to offer Bakrid prayers at Idgah and mosques with necessary precautionary guidelines and called for lifting the ban from mosques in Uttar Pradesh that does not allow more than five persons to offer Namaz at a time.
The organisation, in the statement, said that it disapproves the decision taken by the CBSE of excluding “crucial” chapters from Classes X-XII course on citizenship, nationalism, secularism, federalism and other aspects. It demanded the restoration of the excluded chapters as, it said, the selective exclusion “undermines constitutional values”.
