UP: Muslim families forced to flee village due to harassment by their Hindu neighbours
By Muslim Mirror Staff
New Delhi: Muslim families in a village in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut district are forced to flee as they are fed up with alleged harassment by local Hindu villagers. On their houses, they have put posters stating ”House for Sale”.
”Gujjars of the village keep harassing us on small matters. When the matter goes to the police station, instead of filing a report, they settle the matter through dialogue, but later start harassing us again. We are very upset,” Shamshad of Mavi Meera village was quoted by India Tomorrow (IT).
There are about 40 Muslim families in the village who have planned to flee and put (House for Sale) posters outside their houses.
The India Tomorrow report said that recently, a Gujjar youth from the village did some shopping worth Rs. 20 from a Muslim shopkeeper of the village. However, he did not pay. There was a fight between the two sides over it when the Muslim shopkeeper insisted for his money.
Shamshad alleged, ”Gujjars broke into the house of the Muslim shopkeeper and opened fire.”
The aggrieved Muslims lodged a complaint with the police who they alleged did not ”show any seriousness in the matter”.
Station House Officer (SHO) of Daurala police station said, ”there was a mild clash between the two parties over a cigarette which is being overblown. There is no truth behind Muslims fleeing the village.”
SHO said, ”In the dispute, there was stone-throwing from both sides although no one was injured in the clash. It was a minor dispute.”
The Muslims of the village say that they have complained about this from the district to the state level but to no avail, so they have decided to flee the village.
Shamshad said, ”There was a graveyard case in the village in 2013 which was resolved, but since then the Muslims of the village are often harassed using different excuses.”
The latest situation arose after there was a fight over a small purchase. The men from the Gujjar community broke into the victim’s house and opened fire.
Another villager Mohammad Sharif quoted by India Tomorrow said: ”In Meerut, we tried to register our complaints with the police at three places. However, not a single case was registered in the police station. Every time the police refused to file cases saying these kinds of petty incidents keep happening in the village.” Sharif said the police did not take into account that fire was opened when the men from Gujjar community barged into their house.
”We are fed up with the conflicts here. The administration does not listen to our complaints and the village does not have a conducive atmosphere, so we have decided to flee”, says Sharif.
