The Gujarat ATS on Sunday arrested Maulana (Muslim cleric) Qamar Gani Usmani in connection with the murder of Kishan Bharwad who was shot dead in Dhandhuka city by bike borne Islamists for uploading a video on social media that proclaimed Sri Krishna as the most powerful god.

The arrest was made from the national capital. Usmani was produced before a local court which sent him on transit remand. He will also be produced before the concerned court in Gujarat. The ATS is likely to seek ten days remand for interrogation.

Kishan was murdered on January 25 and six people have been arrested in this case so far. This includes a Maulana Ayyub from Ahmedabad who helped procure the weapon used to shoot Kishan dead.

Kishan uploaded a video on social media after which he came on the radar of Islamists. It is said that Qamar Gani Usmani made a provocative speech against Kishan after which the main accused Shabbir shot dead Kishan with the help of his aide Imtiyaz.

Maulana Usmani and Tahreek Farogh-e-Islam

The Gujarat ATS has claimed that Maulana Usmani is connected to Tahreek Farogh-e-Islam. As per its website this Islamic organization has its head office in Zakir Nagar, Okhla, Delhi – the area houses offices of almost all major Muslim organizations (like Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, PFI) and other controversial Islamist hotspots like Batla House, Shaheen Bagh etc.

Tahreek Farogh-e-Islam translates to “Movement for glory/illumination of Islam”. One of the articles posted on the site on January 3, titled ‘1st January se TAHREEK FAROGH E ISLAM Ki Member Saazi Muhim Ka Aagaz‘ (Membership drive for Tahreek Farogh-e-Islam from January 1) talks about a recent speech made by Usmani. Addressing the maulana as HAZRAT PIR QAMAR GHANI USMANI QADRI CHISTI, the leader of the Dargah Bandagi Miyan in Amethi, it says that the biggest issue facing Muslims is the “blasphemy against Allah’s Rasool (messenger) that Muslims cannot tolerate under any circumstance”.

Not illiteracy, nor poverty, nor the radical mindsets in which Muslim youth are trapped by teachings of maulanas like Usmani – the biggest problem facing Muslims is blasphemy. And this open radicalization to commit crimes to avenge so-called blasphemy – something which has led to tragic consequences across the sub-continent, such as the Durga Puja anti-Hindu pogrom which engulfed Bangladesh last year over a manufactured ‘blasphemy’ incident – is never discussed by our Hinduphobic left-liberal elite.

DeshGujarat website informs us that Maulana Qamar Gani Usmani also heads a radical Muslim organization called Tahaffuz-e-Namoos-e-Risalat (translates to “Preservation of honor of the Prophet’s message”). Their report adds –

“Qamar Gani is known for his radical speeches and his number of videos provoking Muslims are available online. In one of video clips, Qamar Gani asks Muslims not to fear from going to jail. In another video he says the temperature of Muslim is tested. In one more video he says Muslims have become coward nowadays. In a video featuring his Mumbai speech, he gives example of how Muslim children killed a Christian pastor with stick for blasphemy. Qamar Gani in one of speeches also warned that if one fatva is issued, country’s missiles, army all will be insufficient to deal with it.”

Interestingly, DeshGujarat says that Usmani was charged under the UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act) last year by the Tripura police. Readers would remember that a protest in Tripura against the Durga Puja anti-Hindu pogrom in Bangladesh was infiltrated by some anti-social elements leading to a disturbance as the protestors were passing in front of a mosque. This was immediately picked up by liberal journalists and Islamists outfits like Jamaat-e-Islami, JuH, IAMC (Indian American Muslim Council) to spread fake news about ‘mosques being burnt down’ in Tripura, forcing Tripura Police to file UAPA cases against them. The reality was that there had been several instances of attacks on Hindu temples and shrines in Tripura in the lead-up to this disturbance, but all that was downplayed by our English-language media.

Involvement of another maulana and past attempt of another ‘blasphemy murder’

Gujarat ATS has revealed that a local maulana from Gujarat too was involved in the plot to murder Kishan Bharwad. As per their briefing, Shabbir Chopda fired the bullets that killed Kishan. Imtiyaz Pathan was riding the bike during this execution. The ATS probe found that Imtiyaz was motivated and supplied weapon by Maulana Ayyub who is based in Jamalpur area of Ahmedabad. Maulana Ayyub was in contact with Rajkot-based Azim Sama from whom he procured the weapon.

Shabbir was following Maulana Qamar Gani Usmani on Instagram. Shabbir and Imtiyaz confessed during interrogation that they met Maulana Qamar Gani Usmani in Mumbai. During the meeting Usmani told them that ‘whomsoever speaks against Islam and Muslims should be eliminated’. After this they hatched a conspiracy to kill Kishan. It was Usmani who put them in contact with Maulana Ayyub. Maulana Ayyub too had said in the past that ‘if someone insults prophet, the only penalty is death’.

Now, all the above named persons along with weapon-supplier Azim Sama’s brother have been nabbed by police. Prime accused Shabbir Chopda has studied till Class 9 and is a welder. In 2015, an offence was filed against him by Botad police. Shockingly, it has now come to light that Ayyub and Shabbir had plotted another murder last year to avenge ‘blasphemy’.

In May 2021, an FIR was filed against one Sajan Odedara over alleged insult of Islam’s prophet. Sajan Odedara had stayed in jail for over two months in this case. Maulana Ayyub along with Shabbir had visited Porbandar with the intention to kill Sajan, and had also done recce for the same. However Sajan was not present there and therefore Ayyub and Shabbir didn’t succeed in killing him.

Police may arrest more clerics who are into activities of radicalization of Muslim youths, reports DeshGujarat.

It is pertinent to note in the Kamelsh Tiwari murder too, the accused were radicalized by a Maulana, one Maulana Salim Sheikh (24). Key conspirator Rashid Pathan (23) had just returned from Dubai when the plot to murder Kamlesh was hatched in Surat, Gujarat. 13 people were charge-sheeted for that murder which took place in October 2019; a few of them are already out on bail. Last year, Supreme Court even granted the accused’s request to transfer the case to a different court. With such laxness in prosecuting an open-and-shut blasphemy murder, is it any wonder that yet another such crime has been committed?

If Muslims can chant ‘Allah-o-Akbar’ (Allah is the Greatest) 5 times a day during their daily namaz, and along with Christian missionaries openly deride ‘idol worship’ as sinful, then how can it be considered offensive or ‘blasphemous’ for Hindus to proclaim their deities as the Greatest and assert murti puja as the best way of worshipping the divine in a human form?