(Trigger Warning: Contains graphic details of violence)
Two separate incidents of two Maulanas (Islamic clerics) being killed emerged on Tuesday, 11 June from two districts of Uttar Pradesh: Moradabad and Shamli. Both incidents came days after another Maulana was killed in UP’s Pratapgarh on 8 June. The Quint had previously reported about the Pratapgarh incident here. While in the Moradabad incident, the victim was shot dead; in the Shamli incident, the victim was beheaded.
There is, however, no ostensible connection between the three incidents that has been established by the authorities as of now.
Moradabad Imam Shot Dead Next To Home
In Moradabad’s Bhensia village, on the early hours of Tuesday, Maulana Mohammad Akram’s dead body was found in an abandoned building next to his home. Maulana Akram, 40, had been the imam (prayer leader) of the local Badi Masjid in the Bhensia village for the last 15 years, locals said. Residents were alarmed when Maulana Akram didn’t show up for the fajr prayer on Tuesday morning. Later his body, with a bullet wound in his chest, was discovered metres away from his home.
Yusuf, a neighbor of Maulana Akram said his wife first spotted the body. “Around 5:15 am in the morning, my wife spotted a body laying around. She came and told me about it. When I went and checked, I realised it was Maulana Akram,” said Yusuf.
The police said that it is likely he was phoned by someone and asked to come out late in the night.
"Maulana Akram got shot down in the khandar next to his home. We have sent the body for post-mortem...Someone possibly called him at night and asked him to come outside. And then he was shot down sometime at night itself,” Superintendent of Police City Akhilesh Bhadoria said. No arrest has been made in the case yet.
Speaking to The Quint, Mohammad Jabbar, the gram pradhan of the village said that Maulana Akram was very well liked in the village. “He had been serving as the imam of this mosque for 15 years. He was originally from Rampur and moved here to become the imam. No one in the village had any issues with him, so this is very shocking,” the village pradhan said. Maulana Akram is survived by his wife and 6 children.
Shamli Maulana's Beheaded Body Found In Jungle
In Shamli, 58-year-old Imam Fazlur Rehman’s beheaded body was found in a jungle in the Balla Majra village, near Jhinjhana, on Tuesday afternoon.
“The deceased’s son has been arrested for interrogation. We found the head (cut off from the body) about 500 metres from the body, in the same jungle,” said Abhishek Jha, Shamli SP.
Local villagers say that the Imam’s son, who is the accused in the case, has mental health issues and was undergoing treatment for the same.
After the incidents came to light, Shaukat Ali, the UP president of the AIMIM tweeted: “This week, two of our Maulanas were murdered within 3 days, but those @yadavakhilesh @RahulGandhi who became big leaders of big parties by taking our votes are not ready to say anything, they are completely silent, whereas these same Ulema had also appealed to vote for India alliance.”
Renowned cleric Maulana Farooq, 67, general secretary of Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind in Pratapgarh, was brutally killed in Sonpur village on Saturday, 8 June.
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