In the Bareilly district of Uttar Pradesh, several Hindus blocked the Eid Milad-un-Nabi procession taken out by Muslims on 15th September. The protesting Hindus blocked the road to stop the Muslim procession from passing. This comes after Muslim mobs had earlier stopped the Kanwar Yatra from passing from the same Joginwada of the Baradari area.
In Bareilly, Hindu and Muslim communities have come face-to-face, chanting slogans and threatening violence. Peace maintained only by police presence
— Swati Goel Sharma (@swati_gs) September 15, 2024
What a sorry state of affairs. Perpetual conflict. Last year, Kanwar yatra was attacked on this route pic.twitter.com/vMmrGNxyZN
On Sunday (15th September), a Jalsa-e-Mohammadi of about 120 Anjumans was to be taken out in Bareilly on the occasion of Eid Milad-un-nabi. In the afternoon, the officials came to know that the people of the route from where the procession is taken out every year have opposed it. When the local Hindus refused to let the procession pass even after a lot of persuasion, the police-administration officers held a meeting with the heads of the Anjumans and discussed a new route.
After much deliberation, a decision was made to take out the Eid procession from Maurya Gali in Joginwada. However, after receiving this information, the Hindus of Maurya Gali took to the road. They stated that, just as they were not permitted to take the Kanwar Yatra from this path last year, they will not let the Jalsa-e-Mohammadi procession pass from here. Upon getting the information, a huge number of police forces arrived and tried to persuade both the Hindu and the Muslim sides to calm down the situation.
मौके पर राजपत्रित अधिकारियों के नेतृत्व में पर्याप्त पुलिस बल मौजूद है, सभी पक्षों से वार्ता की जा रही है। शांति व्यवस्था कायम है।
— Bareilly Police (@bareillypolice) September 15, 2024
While several Islamists have accused the protesting Hindus of being Islamophobic, the local Hindus are of the opinion that if their peaceful Kanwar Yatra procession was not allowed by local Muslims, why should they allow the Eid procession to pass from their area.
Reports say the head of Dargah Aala Hazrat, Subhani Miyan, was adamant that if the route was not given from Ravi ki Chakki in Jagatpur, then they would not take out the procession. However, the Hindu residents of the area were opposed to the Muslim side’s attempt to form a new route for the Eid procession.
It is worth noting that the Yogi government has announced new guidelines for Barawafaat. The Yogi government has issued multiple stern directions in the new guidelines, including a prohibition on the organisation of non-traditional events in the procession and a ban on the display of weapons and hooliganism. In addition, directives have been given to monitor CCTV cameras and drones for security purposes in order to avoid any unpleasant incidents.
Attacks on Hindu processions in Bareilly
Notably, this is not the first time that the two communities have come face to face in a communally sensitive Bareilly. Last year, the same Joginwada area was at the centre of a conflict started by Muslims against Hindus. Islamists pelted stones at a group of Kanwariyas near Shahnoori mosque in the Joginwada locality in Bareilly city of Uttar Pradesh. Nearly a dozen Kanwariyas and some police personnel were injured in the incident. The incident took place when Kanwariyas were en route to Budaun to fetch holy water from the river Ganga. The Kanwariya groups were to perform ‘jalabhishek’ at the nearby Vankandinath temple. However, they were faced with a barrage of stones from Islamists.
In July 2022, the residents of Paragwa village in Bareilly led by the Gram Pradhan Shakina and her father-in-law Ishtiaq threw contaminated water on the Kanwariyas while they were passing through the village. The villagers also pelted stones at the pilgrims. The attackers were arrested later.
In August 2022, local Muslims residing in the Muslim-dominated Dunka village in the Shergarh Block in Bareilly stopped Kanwariyas from entering the area even as it was their traditional route. Back in 2019, a similar incident was reported during Krishna Janmashtami in Bareilly wherein people from the Muslim community started pelting stones at devotees during a Janmashtami procession taken out by Hindus.
