On February 8th, there was a lot of fighting and violence in Haldwani, Uttarakhand. It happened because a group of Muslims got very angry and started attacking people. The police were there because they were told to destroy a school called a Madrasa. This school was built in the wrong place, so the court said it had to be destroyed.
The fighting started when some government workers came with big machines to break down the Madrasa. They sent a letter to the people who ran the Madrasa, telling them it was built in the wrong place. But those people couldn’t show any papers to prove it was okay. The government workers had already taken some land near the school, and now they were breaking down the school itself.
The angry mob started throwing stones at the police officers and the workers from the Haldwani Municipal Corporation who were there. Then, they surrounded the police station and set fire to the cars parked outside. They even set a transformer on fire, which caused the electricity to go out in the neighborhood. Some journalists and government officials got stuck inside the police station because the mob surrounded it.
Because of the violence, the government of Uttarakhand ordered the police to shoot anyone causing trouble, and they put a curfew in place in many areas. So far, four people have died, and more than 300 police officers have been hurt. Some of the injured officers are women, and their injuries are very serious.
🚨 Indian police attack Muslim women protesting against the demolition of an Islamic school in Banbhulpura, #Haldwani, #Uttarakhand.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has issued shoot-at-sight orders in Haldwani's Banbhulpura after riots broke out following the… pic.twitter.com/55tTQnq9qc
— DOAM (@doamuslims) February 8, 2024
Videos of the terrible violence showed some people who follow Islam throwing stones, shooting guns, and starting fires. There are police officers who say that the group of people who follow Islam wanted to set them on fire.
https://twitter.com/FirdausLaibah/status/1755631247177535989?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1755631247177535989%7Ctwgr%5E02b315ee9a94b0f43cd9aebad3cb7a9328ca87cf%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.opindia.com%2F2024%2F02%2Flies-victim-playing-muslim-mob-violence-haldwani-illegal-madrasa-demolition%2F
Even though we’ve learned more about what happened during the violence and it all started just a few days after a new law called the Uniform Civil Code was passed in the state, some media and people online who support the group involved in the violence are trying to defend them. One person who supports the group said that what happened in Haldwani was just like what has happened before, where they claim that people who follow Islam were provoked first, and then when they fought back, the people who got hurt (like police officers and Hindus) are now saying they’re the victims.
Basically, Saif is saying that following the law and trying to enforce it upsets Muslims, and they feel justified in using violence because they see themselves as victims. He believes that because Muslims feel oppressed, they have the right to commit violence like starting fires, throwing stones, and shooting, and that’s okay. This strategy is used by Islamists around the world. They cause a lot of violence and then say it’s because they’re victims.
Here’s how the article book works:
- Muslims think they’re victims, so they feel it’s okay to be violent against non-Muslims.
- If Muslims are violent, don’t blame them because that’s Islamophobic.
- Even if Muslims celebrate the violence, they’re not the ones who did it, so don’t blame them.
- It’s the non-Muslims’ fault for upsetting Muslims, so the violence is justified.
- If you point out that their religion says it’s okay to kill non-Muslims, that’s also Islamophobic.
- If non-Muslims defend themselves, it’s seen as oppressive.
This article book which was used by Islamists online, and Millat Times was one of the groups pushing this message.
They ignore the fact that the Muslim mob caused a lot of chaos by throwing stones, petrol bombs, and setting fires, aiming to kill police officers and burn them alive.
What they do say is that Muslims were upset because their religious building was being destroyed for no reason, which is a lie because it was ordered by a High Court. They also say that police were attacking Muslim women who were there to protest peacefully, which is also a lie. The Islamists often use women and children at the front of protests to make it harder for the police to act or to later claim they were victims. Even during the violence, there were women in burqas helping the violent mob, but Millat Times doesn’t talk about that.
They also say that the government ordered police to shoot Muslims without reason. But they don’t mention that this order came after the Muslim mob started causing chaos and trying to kill police officers. It’s a tactic they use to make themselves look like victims after being violent.
This isn’t new. Every time there’s violence involving Islamists, they use women to claim they’re victims afterward. Lots of Islamist groups spread the same false information.
Another story that’s spreading is a classic tactic used by Islamists: they cause violence and then blame others when they defend themselves.
A social media account, seemingly a fan of AltNews’ co-founder Mohammad Zubair, shared a video suggesting that the police and Hindus were throwing stones at Muslims. In the video, you can see stones being thrown while people insult Muslims.
This video isn’t fake; it’s real. However, some people, like the Islamists, are trying to twist the truth.
The police say that before January 30th, there weren’t any stones on rooftops in Haldwani. But after January 30th, while the High Court was discussing the illegal Madrasa case, Muslims started gathering stones and acid pouches on their rooftops. The District Magistrate of Nainital explained that the violence was planned in advance. The Islamists decided that when the authorities came to demolish the structure, as ordered by the High Court, they would start violence. She also said there were multiple groups causing trouble. After the first group throwing stones was pushed back by the police, another group showed up with acid pouches. She also mentioned that there was an attempt to burn police officers alive.
With all the evidence of violence and the videos that have come out, it’s clear that the Muslim mob planned and carried out violence against the authorities in Haldwani when they were there to follow a High Court order.
When thousands of Islamists are throwing stones, shooting, and even throwing acid pouches, it’s understandable that the people being attacked would try to defend themselves. In the process, they might throw stones back and even say some harsh words out of anger.
But now, the online group of Islamists is treating this self-defense as if it’s aggression. They’re forgetting that the violence started with their own community members attacking others, and the people defending themselves were just trying to stay safe.
It’s not just random Twitter accounts spreading these lies. Even well-known news outlets like TheWire, which is known for its left-leaning views, are spreading the same false information as the online mob.
TheWire made some claims:
#WATCH | Haldwani violence | DM Nainital, Vandana Singh says, "The demolition drive started peacefully, the force was deployed for prevention…Stones were pelted on our Municipal Corporation's team…It was planned that the day the demolition drive will be conducted the forces… pic.twitter.com/JL098EatbW
— ANI (@ANI) February 9, 2024
They said that no demolition order was shown by the authorities. This seems like a lie because the demolition was ordered by the High Court, not just a random decision by the government. Also, the District Magistrate of Nainital said that the violence was planned before the demolition day. So, if the locals didn’t know about the demolition, how did they gather stones and acid pouches to attack officials? The officials also sent a notice to the Madrasa management saying the building was illegally constructed, but they couldn’t prove otherwise.
They mentioned that only a few police officers were injured when people retaliated. But they didn’t ask why the mob was retaliating since the authorities were just there to follow a court order.
One thing mentioned by The Wire unintentionally reveals the brutality of the Islamists. They said that eyewitnesses claimed the authorities allowed two people to enter the Madrasa in Haldwani and take their religious books. This shows that there wasn’t any anti-Muslim agenda by the authorities, as The Wire and the online Islamists suggest. If there was, they wouldn’t have allowed the retrieval of religious books. Despite this fact, The Wire still spreads lies and guesses, helping the online and on-ground mob hide their crimes.
As more details come out from Haldwani, the noise from the online mob will likely increase. They’re trying to protect the violent individuals on the ground and provoke even more violence.
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