Anti CAA protests: Muslims have only two places, Pakistan or kabristan, UP police tell 72-year-old man

Around nearly 30 police officials barged into two-storey house of Haji Hamid Hasan, a 72-year-old timber trader in Muzaffarnagar town in western Uttar Pradesh around 11 pm on Friday and went on the rampage. Some officials were in plainclothes.

According to a report in the Telegraph, Hasan alleged that he was assaulted with a rifle butt when he protested and beaten with sticks. The police official vandalised the house, breaking washbasins, bathroom fittings, bed, furniture, fridge, washing machine and utensils, he said.

“I cried and begged for mercy but they were very brutal. They told me Muslims have only two places, Pakistan or Kabristan,” he narrated the ordeal while showing the scene of destruction inside his house and the injury on his leg.

Hasan said that the rampage continued for 30 to 40 minutes. “After destroying everything, they looted at gunpoint jewellery and cash of Rs 5 lakh kept in the almirah. I recently bought the jewellery for the weddings of my two grand-daughters,” The Telegraph reported him as saying.

The women in the house -- Hasan’s wife Fatima and their two granddaughters, Ruqaiya and Mubashira, hid themselves in a room, their hearts pounding with fear.

The policemen hurled abuses at women, beat up Md Shahid, Hasan’s son and took him away, 70 year old Hasan said. Shahid is still in police custody and he has been charged with rioting.

“I met him and he said the cops asked him to hold a gun and then took his photo,” said Hasan.

Hasan had said his only crime was that he and his son had participated in the protests after the Friday prayers.

“Chief minister Yogi Adityanath is taking revenge and his policemen are targeting Muslims for participating in the protests. India is no longer the same country where I was born. My parents had rejected Jinnah’s Pakistan and embraced Gandhi’s India but this government has made us pariahs,” Hasan said, tears streaming down his cheeks.

Earlier on Wednesday, over 60 people have been "identified for violence" during last week's anti-citizenship law protests in Rampur and Gorakhpur and issued notices, asking them to explain their position or pay for damage caused to public and private property, officials said.

The Rampur administration issued notices to 28 people on Tuesday after damage of nearly Rs 25 lakh was assessed across the district by the police and the administration, they said.

Police had initially said that the damage incurred was worth around Rs 15 lakh but the final assessment put the figure at Rs 25 lakh, they added.

"Notices have been issued to 28 people who have been identified for violence during the protests. They have been given seven days' time to respond why action should not be taken against them, failing which, proceedings will be initiated to recover money from them for destruction of public and private property," District Magistrate Rampur Aunjaneya Singh told PTI.