SUDDEN SURGE IN COMMUNAL PASSIONS IN UTTARAKHAND

SUNIL NEGI

Several parts of of Uttarakhand have witnessed a communal tension like situation in the past two months never ever experienced earlier in this peaceful and tranquil state famous for being the land of abode of Gods always believing in communal amity and mutual trust.

The reason behind the sudden surge in arousing of communal tension have been the rise in obnoxious crime in Kotdwar, Raiwala near Rishikesh, Dehradun, Satpuli n other areas of Garhwal Uttarakhand in which a man of the majority community was murdered and shamful rape of a girl child revealed by the involvement of the accused belonging to the minority community.

Uttarakhand, where criminal activities like murders and rapes are comparitively less has no previous history of communal tensions or riots with muslim and hindu communities living in peace and tranquility.

But after the change in government some six months ago not only has this otherwise peaceful state witnessed spurt in crimes of the worst n despicable nature but the communal fabric also got disturbed with abrupt rise in minority majority crisis.

This is definitely a most disheartening trend amounting to loss of mutual trust, bonding, amity and communal harmony between the majority and the minority communities. Criminals have no caste, creed, community or religeon but if they commit any crime of grusome and diabolical nature it’s obvious that the spontaneous reaction is witnessed from the community to which the victim belongs and this is what has happened in all these cases of communal eruptions in some towns of Garhwal, Uttarakhand.

In Raiwala railway tracts a dead body of a Hindu man allegedly murdered by the father Islam and his son was found in mutilated condition resulting in eruption of tension in a part of Rishikesh where some properties were burnt by the furiously angered mob of the majority community.

The father son duo have now been arrested by the police on the charge of alleged murder. Police sources say that the deceased, father of three children had an illicit love affair with the women of the minority community which seems to be the reason behind the lynching. Similarly, last Sunday in Kotdwar/Pauri township a 27 year old muslim youth from Bihar clandestinely took the four year girl to his room and raped her.

The child girl was threatened with dire consequences after the rape, but her parents noticed the crime after their daughter’s condition deteriorated badly. On hearing this the highly enraged public took out demonstration raising slogans against the police and the criminal Khairuddin leading to his arrest finally.

The entire trading community of Pauri town ship pulled down their shutters and demanded death for the criminal Khairuddin, primarily hailing from Bihar and an illegal migrant in Garhwal, Uttarakhand.

The furious and angered protestors demanded the forthwith forcible ouster of all the illegal migrants and their proper and in depth legal verifications. In another small town ship of SATPULI a riot type situation occured last month when few shops and properties of the minority community were vandalised and burnt in view of the posting of hate comments against the majority community.

There is no doubt that Uttarakhand has these days become an extremely safe haven for outside criminals and all the successive governments have been responsible for this mess  as vote
bank politics is their only forte.