With President Droupadi Murmu’s approval, the Waqf Amendment Bill, which was adopted by the Lok Sabha on 3rd April and the Rajya Sabha on 4th April, became the Waqf Amendment Act and went into effect on 8th April. However, during this period, some incidents took place, hinting at something more sinister.
A severed pig’s head was found inside Shahi Jama Masjid, located in the Mantola police station area of Agra in Uttar Pradesh. On 11th April morning, the head was found adjacent to the mosque’s water tank, inciting anger among the Muslim community. The mosque management committee labeled it as a calculated and intentional conspiracy. However, the police said that a man named Nazaruddin was behind this incident.
#Agra : जामा मस्जिद में जानवर का सिर रखने का मामला
— News1India (@News1IndiaTweet) April 11, 2025
शहर की फिजा बिगाड़ने वाले व्यक्ति को किया गया गिरफ्तार
पुलिस ने व्यक्ति को महज 4 घंटे में किया गिरफ्तार
पकड़े गए व्यक्ति का नाम नजरूद्दीन,पुलिस कर रही पूछताछ
आगरा में त्रिस्तरीय सुरक्षा की की गई व्यवस्था
जुम्मे की नमाज को… pic.twitter.com/2ifDepMQRG
Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) City Sonam Kumar had promptly arrived at the location with personnel from multiple police stations to retrieve the head and commence an investigation. He stated that the police had been actively searching for the accused since morning and further mentioned that efforts are underway to determine his motive behind the action. The officer confirmed that he will be arrested and sent to jail as part of legal proceedings.
Tensions rose at Agra’s Shahil Jama Masjid just before Friday prayers when a polythene bag with meat and decapitated pig head. The instance sparked unrest, prompting a large gathering of locals at the site. Police responded promptly to control the situation. The people claimed that it was a deliberate attempt to disturb communal peace. The authorities appealed for peace and advised against rumormongering.
The whole area had been transformed into a security zone. The authorities reassured the public that appropriate action would be taken. Religious leaders from the Muslim community were summoned to the location. CCTV footage from the mosque captured a young man with his face obscured, carrying a closed sack in his hand. The police seized the DVR from the CCTV cameras installed in the mosque. Sonam Kumar promised that the suspect would be apprehended shortly and stringent actions would ensue.
A warning has been issued regarding Friday prayers in the wake of the event. During afternoon services, police will be stationed outside mosques and social media activity is closely monitored. Several police teams were engaged in searching for the perpetrator by analyzing CCTV footage and other means. According to the authorities, Nazaruddin from Mantola was identified as the individual who discarded the animal’s head inside the mosque. He has been taken into custody and being questioned. The police sought assistance from local intelligence and residents to ascertain the identity of the perpetrator.
Nazeem detained for tearing pages of Quran
A few days earlier, on 3rd April, tensions flared in Uttar Pradesh’s Shahjahanpur, following the discovery of torn pages from the Quran in the vicinity of the Jalalabad police station. In response, thousands of Muslims congregated on Tehsil Road, calling for action. Subsequent investigations revealed that a Muslim individual named Nazeem was responsible for the act. The incident transpired at around 9 pm when a young man was observed ripping pages from the Quran and scattering them near a local shop.
As news of the incident circulated, the Muslim community became increasingly incensed. Many people took to the streets and created a ruckus. Superintendent of Police (SP) Rajesh Dwivedi arrived with the police force after learning of the situation and pacified the mob. Cops were stationed there to maintain peace. The police then used CCTV footage to identify the offender, who turned out to Nazeem and he was apprehended immediately.
Superintendent of Police Rajesh Dwivedi conveyed, “I personally reached the scene with police personnel, and after ensuring that the crowd dispersed, we checked the CCTV footage. The video showed a man throwing torn pages of the ‘Quran’ into the air. The accused was later identified as Nazeem, a resident of Jalalabad.”
Islamists commit ‘blasphemy’ only to blame Hindus, inflict violence: A universal playbook
Notably, in addition to the rhetoric from opposition parties and Muslim leaders labeling the Waqf Amendment Bill as anti-Muslim and unconstitutional, Islamist groups are actively attempting to incite communal violence in the nation by framing Hindus. Interestingly, this method has been adopted to specifically target Hindus by the radicals by defiling their own religious texts and symbols. Furthermore, this troubling trend is not limited to the country, but it also extends to other nations including India’s neighbourhood such as Bangladesh, where anti-Hindu violence by Muslim mobs remains a serious issue.
A man named Shah Alam entered the Durga Puja Mandap at the Sri Sri Rakshakali Temple located in the Sompura region of Hathazari, Chittagong, carrying a bag filled with copies of the Quran, in 2023. He was nabbed by the Puja Celebration Committee and subsequently turned over to the cops. Nevertheless, the police released him without conducting an investigation, attributing their decision to his alleged mental instability.
“When the person entered the Mandap, his suspicious behaviour raised our concern. Around 8 pm, we detained him for questioning and searched his bag. We found three copies of the Quran Sharif and some jihadist books, among other items. We promptly handed him over to the Hathazari police sub-inspector Jasim, in accordance with the law,” disclosed General Secretary of the Puja Celebration Committee Gobinda Kantinath.
Jyotin Nandi, the Organisational Editor of the Committee, mentioned that he was dressed in white and seated among the devotees. Several members of the committee gathered around him, driven by suspicion. One member observed books that appeared to be the Quran in a bag next to his chair which prompted him to raise an alarm, leading to the man’s apprehension.
In 2021, extremists targeted Hindus in Bangladesh, claiming they had disrespected the Quran. However, an investigation by the police revealed that a Muslim individual was actually behind the alleged “blasphemous” actions. The authorities identified Iqbal Hossain, the son of Nur Ahmed Alam from the Sujanagar area of Comilla, as the individual responsible for the week-long communal violence against Hindus in the country. A slew of violent attacks against the nation’s minority Hindu population was sparked after he put the Quran at a Durga Puja mandap in Comilla’s Nanua Dighir Par.
That same year, local residents captured a Muslim man who attempted to take a copy of the Quran into the Sarbajanin Puja pavilion. This event unfolded in the Chowdhury Bazar area of Habibganj town, situated in Bangladesh’s Sylhet Division. A 25-year-old named Mizan from Luitapur village in the Begumganj region of Noakhali Division, was seen wandering nearby when he tried to access the puja pavilion through a rear entrance. When locals nabbed him, they found a copy of the Quran in his possession.
Considering that Muslim fanatics formerly executed anti-Hindu attacks by infiltrating the Islamic book into the puja pandal, the people swiftly reported him to the police. Officer-in-charge (OC) Dous Mohammad from the Habiganj Sardar Model police station conveyed, “Police are questioning him to know details of his motive.”
Conclusion
There is a persistent tendency among Islamists to target Hindus, often using blasphemy as a pretext for violence especially, in Islamic countries. On 6th April, a crowd of agitated Muslims attempted to lynch a 40-year-old Hindu man named Akhil Chandra Mondal, accusing him of ‘insulting’ Islam and ridiculing Prophet Muhammad. This incident took place in the Tangail district of Bangladesh. He bled from his head as police intervened to escort him away while the bloodthirsty people assaulted him with sticks and rods, in alarming videos that surfaced online.
This occurrence represents merely one of countless instances in which a violent Muslims groups are willing to attack, kill and devastate entire areas over what they deem blasphemous, without considering the validity of the accusations. Hence, Hindus are marked as target by such fake allegations of blasphemy by these individuals to provoke unrest and violence in the country.
Unsurpringly, radical Muslims in Pakistan also exploit false blasphemy accusations to further oppress marginalized minorities, particularly the Hindu community, and others they consider guilty, even in the absence of evidence. A vicious mob is perpetually prepared to respond to calls for murder at a moment’s notice in this highly radicalized nation. The brutal torture, murder and subsequent burning of Priyantha Diyawadana, a 49-year-old Sri Lankan national and general manager at Rajco Industries in Sialkot, Punjab, who faced accusations of blasphemy, amid slogans of “Nara e Takbeer” and “Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah” serves as yet another illustration of this disturbing pattern.
Unfortunately, even in the first world, false blasphemy charges can lead to deadly consequences as portrayed by the infamous beheading of 47-year-old geography teacher Samuel Paty in 2020. During a lesson on freedom of speech, he advised his students to look away if they were likely to be offended by a controversial image from Charlie Hebdo. His life was taken after a schoolgirl, who had not attended the class, informed her father that she had been reprimanded for voicing an objection.
It was alleged online that a few days earlier, he had ordered Muslim students to exit his class of 13-year-olds before revealing controversial images of the prophet Muhammad. The lies cost Paty his life, as he was murdered by Abdoullakh Anzorov, a Chechen-born murderer, outside his secondary school located in the Paris suburb of Conflans-Saint-Honorine. The assailant was shot and killed by police just moments later.
It is evident that the propagation of fabriated charges to invoke accusations of blasphemy is a pretext for the murder of non-Muslims, particularly Hindus and those labeled as offenders as well as unleash mayhem. The Islamists don’t care for legal proceedings, authorities or even law, instead, they act with a sense of entitlement, engaging in violent acts without guilt or remorse, often viewing such actions as a religious obligation. A striking example of the same was observed in Pakistan, where extremists were ready to attack a woman simply for wearing a dress with Arabic script, mistakenly assuming it for Quranic verses.
The false blasphemy allegations that led to widespread violence in Nagpur recently is yet another glaring instance of the same. Now, the passage of the Waqf Amendment Bill has undoubtedly led some vested interests to view it as a chance to create discord and undermine law and order in the country. Furthermore, the deceptive rhetoric from political parties focused on vote bank politics, as well as the remarks of Muslim leaders is only intensifying the issue. The two recent cases could potentially be indicative of a larger controversy to trigger chaos in the country, akin to the events that occurred during the anti-CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) protests.
