The Uttar Pradesh Police have released the first poster with photographs of 40 key persons who were caught on camera pelting stones and participating in the violence that erupted in Kanpur on Friday after weekly namaz (Muslim congregational prayers).
A WhatsApp number has been provided for the people to inform the police if they have any information about the alleged miscreants. The police have assured that the identity of those giving information will not be disclosed.
As many as 38 persons have been arrested in connection with the violence, the FIR of which has 1,000 unnamed persons.
The violence in Kanpur erupted on June 3 in the Pared, Nai Sadak and Yateemkhana areas of the city when a Muslim mob forced shopkeepers to down shutters in protest against alleged ‘blasphemous’ remarks made by Nupur Sharma against Islam’s Prophet during a TV debate in which panelist Tasleem Rehmani was mocking the Shivling found during the Gyanvapi survey.
So far, 38 arrests have been made in the case that had injured at least six people.
“We have identified about 100 more stone-pelters and rioters through CCTV footage and video clips,” said Anand Prakash Tiwari, additional commissioner of police, law and order. Search operations are underway and raids are also being conducted at all possible hideouts to arrest rioters at the earliest, he added.
Hayat Zafar Hashmi, who is also the national president of the Maulana Muhammad Jauhar Ali (a Muslim League leader who was involved in Khilafat movement and also briefly led the Congress, before turning into a vociferous supporter of partition and Jinnah) Fans Association, is believed to be the master-mind of the violence. Links between Hashmi and the radical quasi-terror outfit PFI have also emerged. Hashmi was arrested from Hazratganj area of Lucknow on Saturday, police said.
(With IANS inputs)
