Tension flared up in Ahilyanagar city in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district late on Sunday (28th September) after a ‘I Love Muhammad’ rangoli design was drawn on the roadside in the Miliwada area.
According to police, some ‘unidentified’ people created the rangoli. By Monday (29th September) morning, a video of the rangoli went viral on social media.
A frenzied Muslim mob then staged violent protests and blocked the busy Ahilyanagar-Sambhaji highway, taking it as an insult to Prophet Muhammad.
Residents soon reported the incident to the police, and an FIR was registered. One person accused of making the rangoli was arrested.
But the muslims were not satisfied with the action and began a fresh demonstration in Kotla, under the Tofkhana police station area.
By around 7 am, on Monday (29th Sepetember), the situation escalated when police tried to control the situation and pacify the crowd.
Muslims engaged in violence and stone pelting. To control the situation, the police had to resort to a lathi charge. Authorities later confirmed that 30 individuals had been detained, and another FIR was lodged in relation to the riots.
The situation has now been controlled, although police personnel are on the alert in the region. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, while responding to the incident, had hinted at a bigger design behind the agitation.
Speaking in Yavatmal on Monday, 29th October, he said, “We will have to see if there is a conspiracy behind this. We also need to see who is trying to spoil the social environment. Is anyone trying to polarise us in the same way that was attempted during the Lok Sabha elections? Everyone has the right to practice their religion, but it is wrong to create tension among people in this way.” He also compared the current flare-up to attempts made to polarise voters during the Lok Sabha elections.
The row erupted amid the “I love Muhammad” slogan has already become a national controversy. The issue first came into light in Kanpur last week during the Barawafat procession, and since then the slogan has been the central rallying point of rallies and protests in various states like Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Telangana, and Maharashtra. The Bareilly and Nagpur witnessed clashes, and places such as Lucknow, Unnao, and Hyderabad witnessed massive demonstrations.
In Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has been firm, calling the campaign a case of religious extremism that has to be fought by promoting Hindutva. With the Ahilyanagar graffiti incident itself now being connected to the same campaign, police and state authorities in Maharashtra are keeping close watch to prevent further unrest.
