The forced religious conversion racket case has now taken a massive turn as Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad suspect that the entire religious conversions run by Mufti Qazi Jahangir Qasmi and Mohammad Umar Gautam may have been funded by Islamic terrorists operating in Pakistan.
According to Zee News, sources within the Uttar Pradesh police have confirmed that they suspect the conversion racket run by Mufti Qazi Jahangir Qasmi and Mohammad Umar Gautam had funding from India’s most wanted terrorist and Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Saeed. The Zee News report said that the Hafiz Saeed connection to the religious conversion case came to the fore during the interrogation of the accused.
As per the Zee News report, Mufti Qazi Jahangir Qasmi and Mohammad Umar Gautam allegedly received funding from an NGO connected to Pakistani terrorist Hafiz Saeed. The funding allegedly came from Gulf countries through Hafiz Saeed’s NGO Falah-e-Insaniyat.
The shocking revelations come after Uttar Pradesh police said they were exploring the possible foreign funding into the conversion racket case. The Uttar Pradesh police’s Anti-Terrorism Squad had busted a country-wide religious conversion racket and arrested Mufti Qazi Jahangir Qasmi and Mohammad Umar Gautam.
UP ATS sources reportedly told Zee News that the funds were sent through Qatar, the USA, Kuwait and Dubai for religious conversions and radicalisation at many places in Mewat, Delhi, Rajasthan. The Uttar Pradesh suspects that Umar Gautam and Mufti Qazmi may have also received such funding from Hafiz Saeed’s NGO.
The ATS also said that they are also probing the ISI connection into the UP conversion racket. The officials suspect that a huge amount of funds were deposited in Umar’s account.
In addition, the intelligence agencies suspect that several madrassas and Islamic institutions have been receiving large donations from abroad, especially from Pakistan and other Arab countries. In turn, these Islamic institutions are funding religious conversion and radicalisation across the country, the report said.
Uttar Pradesh conversion racket:
In a major operation, the Uttar Pradesh ATS had unearthed a massive religious conversion racket from the Jamia Nagar area in Delhi. The UP Police had arrested Mufti Qazi Jahangir Qasmi and Mohammad Umar Gautam for their involvement in illegal religious conversions.
According to police, women and physically challenged children were their targets. Mohammad Umar Gautam and Mufti Qasmi brainwashed differently-abled children, converted them to Islam and used them as human bombs.
The rampant racket of converting people into the fold of Islam came to light after a deaf and dumb son of a couple in Kalyanpur, Kanpur, was converted and sent to South India. Since then, thousands of cases of forcible conversions to Islam by the two accused have surfaced. The two reportedly made false promises of jobs and money in lieu of conversion.
Umar Gautam, a convert himself, revealed that they converted around 250 to 300 people every year. During the interrogation, Umar also informed that they targeted people from the economically weaker section of the society, including women, children, and the disabled. They were also getting the women married so that they do not return to their original faith.
In addition, Umar Gautam confessed to having converted around 1,500 children at school for the deaf and mute in Noida after the school management was enticed with promises of employment and money. The police approached the parents of such children.
Umar Gautam and his aide have been booked under Sections 420, 120 B, 153A, 153B, 295, and 511 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 3/5 the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Ordinance-2020. They have been sent to 7-day remand on Wednesday (June 23).
