In a letter to PM Manmohan Singh on October 4, Maulana BadruddinAjmal, Member of Parliament (LokSabha) and President All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), condemned the flare-up of communal violence in Rudrapur and surrounding areas, in the strongest possible terms.He said that reports from the area showed that the police and the law and order authorities were slow to react to contain the violence and prevent it from spreading to nearby areas.
According to eyewitness accounts, for over five hours, members of the majority community set fire to shops of Muslims in Udhamsingh Nagar, while the police remained passive spectators.
When the injured were taken to Amrit Hospital, the Sikh owner of the facility refused to treat the hapless victims. When the Muslim crowd protested, guns started firing from the hospital premises which led to the killing of a lot of people.
The riots were ignited when miscreants burnt a copy of the Qur’ānand threw it into a masjid, which incensed the local Muslim population, and they came out in large numbers to register their protest. But they were beaten and manhandled by the police.There were some instances of Hindus and Sikhs banding together to search for easy targets.
There is long history of riots in India and this incident comes soon after the killing of Muslims in Gopalgarh, a month ago.Such riots destroy the Muslim business centres and change the social contours of the areas for ever with the result that they are abandoned by the community.
Maulana Ajmal also stated, “It is strongly notable, as I earlier mentioned in a letter to you dated 17-09-2011 under the subject line ‘Sporadic riots are highly disturbing for nationwide communal harmony, peace and development of India’ that some miscreants are deliberately trying to discredit your governance by creating communal gulf between India’s two large community – Hindus and Muslims through communal flare-ups. Therefore I repeatedly urge you to go behind them and book them under the law.
“I call upon you to restore the confidence of the Muslim community so that justice prevails in these localities and the culprits are brought to book,” he said.