A video of infamous advocate Mehmood Pracha, known for being featured in a pro-ISIS magazine, spreading disinformation and inciting people against the Uniform Civil Code (UCC).
In a video that has gone viral on the internet, Mehmood Pracha claims that the Uniform Civil Code is a conspiracy to snatch the rights of citizens to hand them over to Adani and Ambani.
“UCC is a conspiracy…it is not Uniform Civil Code, it is Uniform Story Code… RSS governments promote it in different states and parts of the country. They aim to snatch the rights of 99 per cent of the citizens of the country and give them to Adani and Ambani. They want to loot money from all banks and give it to their workers and help them flee the country,” Pracha says in the video.
Notably, the video comes in the wake of the UCC bill tabled by the Uttarakhand government that includes various provisions, including a complete ban on polygamy and child marriage, a standardised marriageable age for girls across all faiths, and a uniform process for divorce. These proposals, geared towards promoting gender equality and social harmony, will be discussed during the ongoing special four-day assembly session, which commenced yesterday and will run until Thursday.
The draft of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) covers a wide range of aspects of civil life. It includes suggestions regarding inheritance rights, compulsory marriage registration, and raising the legal age of marriage for girls to enable them to pursue education before marriage. Moreover, couples who do not register their marriages will not qualify for government benefits, signalling an emphasis on legal documentation.
However, as the Uttarakhand government prepares to roll out the bill and enact a law on the UCC, an attempt to defame the government and muddle the narrative around is underway, with Mehmood Pracha at the forefront of such endeavour that aims to undermine the law and mislead people with disinformation.
Mehmood Pracha was featured in ISIS magazine.
Mehmood Pracha, who had called for Muslims to take up arms, was featured as the poster boy for a pro-ISIS media outlet and is accused of spreading communal hatred in the past.
As India went through communal turmoil during the anti-Hindu riots earlier in February 2020, a publication titled ‘Voice of Hind’ issued by Al-Qitaal Media Center and Junudul Khilafah al-Hind featured Mahmood Pracha on its cover page. The cover was titled “So, Muslims, where are you going?”. It was featured with the subtitle “A Call to the Muslims of India”.
The magazine had praised slain terrorists in Kashmir. It also urged the Muslims to reject the idea of an Indian nation-state and fight for the ‘caliphate’ instead.
Mehmood Pracha had called for ‘Muslims and Dalits to acquire Arms License”
In addition to this, Mehmood Pracha has also been accused of exhorting Muslims to take up arms. In a press conference last year, Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawad and Mehmood Paracha announced that they would be setting up a camp in Lucknow to teach Muslims and Dalits about the ‘right to self-defence and how to apply for a firearm licence.
Mahmood Pracha had cited the incidents of mob lynchings and the Sonbhadra massacre as reasons for conducting the camp. He said those events would not have occurred if the victims had legal firearms to defend themselves. They were planning to raise an armed militia to combat ‘mob lynchings’, using licenced weapons. Later, Mahmood Paracha was seen holding that training camp inside a Lucknow Mosque, where he was training Muslims about how to fill out forms for licences and acquire firearms, even though an FIR had been registered against him for his incendiary speech.
In 2020, the special cell of the Delhi Police conducted raids at Pracha’s office about the Anti-Hindu Delhi riots case.
