The Hindu Population in Uttar Pradesh’s communally-sensitive Sambhal district has declined to 15% while Muslim population surged to 85% since 1947.
This alarming revelation has been made in the report submitted by the panel appointed to probe Sambhal violence case. The report was submitted to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
The 450-page report consists of details about the November 2024 Sambhal violence and also touches on the previous riots which took place in the city.
The report also mentions key details about the demographic changes in Sambhal, where, at one point, the Hindu community members comprised 45%, but their number has since decreased to 20%.
From 55% to 15%, Hindu population declined in Sambhal
According to the report, during independence, 55% of the population was Muslim and 45% Hindu in the Sambhal Nagar Palika area.
However, at the present time, the Hindu population has decreased to 15%, whereas the Muslim community has increased to 85%.
15 communal riots since 1947 and Hindu were always the victims
The report stated that a total of 15 riots took place in Sambhal since independence.
These riots occurred in 1947, 1948, 1953, 1958, 1962, 1976, 1978, 1980, 1990, 1992, 1995, 2001, and 2019.
The report also revealed that the Muslim-dominated Sambhal district has become a base for several terrorist outfits.
Hindus were primary target of 2024 Sambhal violence, police presence thwarted conspiracy
Moreover, the judicial commission found that historically, Turks and Pathans had violent clashes in this region.
After 1947, the local Hindus have been the “primary victims” of all the listed communal riots started by Muslims.
Even the Muslim mob violence in November 2024 was planned to attack local Hindus. However, the heavy police presence in Hindu-majority areas prevented large scale Hindu casualties.
Sambhal violence and police action
On 24th November 2024, violence erupted during a court-ordered Archaeological Survey of India survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid in Sambhal.
The violence had resulted in the deaths of four individuals and injuries to several others, including officials and locals. As local Muslims gathered outside the mosque and tensions escalated, police resorted to force and opened fire on the protesters, killing at least four men and several injured, including officials and locals.
The violence unleashed by Muslim mobs resulted in 12 FIRs and 80 arrests for pelting stones at police officers from rooftops. According to the charge sheet, there were 159 total accused in the case. It also mentioned that the weapons recovered from the site of violence and other places were manufactured in the United Kingdom, USA, and Germany.
The Uttar Pradesh Police’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) had filed a chargesheet of over 4,000 pages in six of the 12 cases. Following the violence, the UP government constituted a three-tier judicial inquiry commission to investigate Sambhal violence. The commission is chaired by retired judge Devendra Arora, former DGP AK Jain and former IAS Amit Mohan Prasad.
OpIndia reported earlier how Samajwadi Party, notorious for its Muslim appeasement politics came out in support of Muslim rioters. In fact, SP MP Zia-ur-Rehman Barq and SP MLA Iqbal Mehmood’s son Suhail Iqbal have also been named in the chargesheet.
