Maulana Hafiz Faizan Raza, who had recently announced a reward of Rs 1 crore for beheading Hindu activist Swami Darshan Bharti, has been arrested by the Uttar Pradesh police, reports Aaj Tak.
A viral video had gone viral recently in which Maulana Hafiz Faizan Raza was seen declaring a bounty of Rs. 1 crore to anyone who can behead Swami Darshan Bharti and bring his head to him. Maulana Hafiz Faizan Raza released two videos on social media, in which he could be heard making objectionable statements.
Maulana Hafiz Faizan Raza, who hails from Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh, brazenly issued a death threat to the Hindu Sadhu Swami Darshan Bharti. The Islamist cleric did not stop there. He went ahead to issue threats saying anyone who speaks against Islam will face the same fate.
Maulana Raza claimed Swami Darshan Bharti of Uttarakhand has been spreading hate against Islam and Muslims.
Hafiz Faizan Raza is the head of a local madarsa in Bareilly and is also the national president of an organisation called “Sarva Samaj Sangathan”. He has been politically active in Uttar Pradesh and has developed close connections with various opposition leaders in Uttar Pradesh.
As his death threat video went viral on the internet, Uttar Pradesh Police took cognisance of the video and arrested the controversial Maulana from his madarsa on Saturday. While Maulana released another video in his defence and claimed that his mental condition is not proper, the UP Police has continued with the investigation.
Who is Swami Darshan Bharti?
Swami Darshan Bharti is a Hindu activist who has been quite vocal about the issues of Hindus in Uttarakhand for a very long time. Swami Bharti is known for starting a campaign to save lands belonging to Hindu temples. He had recently opposed purchasing of land by people from Muslim community near the holy town of Badrinath and constructing any mosque or madarsa there, reports Hindu Post.
In fact, Swami Bharti has been at the receiving end of hatred and death threats for a while now after he started speaking against illegal land encroachment by Muslims. Following that, several clerics from Deoband had stoked a controversy by claiming that Badrinath is originally Badruddin Shah, a holy place of Muslims encroached by Hindus and should be given back to Muslims.
Protesting this, Swami Bharti and his organisation had organised several protests to save the encroachment of lands belonging to Hindu temples.
In recent times, Swami Darshan Bharti has also been quite active in sensitising Hindus about the increasing migration of Muslims to Uttarakhand. He reportedly demanded a stricter law to check “Love Jihad” against Hindu girls by Muslims in Uttarakhand. He had also sat on a hunger strike in April to demand a stronger law against “Love Jihad”. Swami Bharti is also extremely vocal about Christian conversions in the state.
