Family members claim their innocence and accuse police of arbitrary actions and misconduct
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI – Five Muslim men were arrested in the Uttar Pradesh city of Saharanpur District for waving Palestinian flags during Monday’s Eid Al-Fitr celebrations. Uzaif Khan, Abdul Rahim, Mohammed Falak, Abdul Karim, and Mohammed Uzaif were arrested for waving the flags as they came out of a mosque after Eid prayers, according to a police official.
“Five people out of the total eight booked in this case have been arrested. Three are absconding. Apart from the individuals, some vehicles were also involved. We are trying to locate the owners of the vehicles and who were driving them,” the official said.
Preliminary investigation and interrogation of the arrested individuals show that they were part of the crowd waving the Palestinian flags but not the main instigators. Further investigations are ongoing to determine whether the incident was part of a “big network” or just a spontaneous act, the official said. He also indicated that more arrests were possible to assist the police in gathering more details.
The five arrests came after a video of the waving of the Palestinian flag and raising pro-Palestine slogans went viral on social media. According to reports, Muslim worshippers gathered at the Ghanta Ghar and raised slogans after the Eid prayers. The video shows a large crowd raising Islamic slogans and waving Islamic and Indian flags along with the Palestinian flags.
However, family members of the accused claim that the arrested persons did not wave Palestinian flags. Akbari, the mother of 40-year-old Falak, accused the police of arbitrary actions and misconduct.
“Around 2 pm, 15-20 police officers suddenly barged into our house. Only women and children were at home. When I asked the police officers the reason for their presence, they misbehaved with us,” she said.
Talking to Maktoob Hindi, she said, “There were no female police officers in the team. Nor did they have any warrant. When we asked questions, they even threatened us. As soon as Falak returned home after offering the Dhuhr (noon) prayer, the police forcibly took him away.”
Falak’s family also showed CCTV footage clearly showing the police team entering their house.
Twenty-one-year-old Uzaif’s father, Naseem, said, “Around 1 pm, some police officers came to my house. At that time, Uzaif was asleep. They woke him up and asked him to identify the young men in a video. Uzaif did not recognize any of them. After that, the police officers took him away with them.”
Despite the Indian government’s support for the Palestinian cause, authorities are launching a crackdown on pro-Palestinian protesters, arresting them for simply raising their voices. This comes at a time when the world is condemning the ongoing genocide of Palestinians being committed by the Israeli army in Gaza since October 7, 2023.
Earlier, several people were arrested in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, and other states for their pro-Palestine activities, including waving Palestinian flags and raising slogans in support of the Gaza resistance. According to Article14, at least seven Indian states have filed criminal cases against pro-Palestine protesters. Nine cases were filed in states run by the BJP or in a BJP coalition or directly from Delhi; eight by the Congress or a Congress coalition—in which 51 people have been booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, the newly introduced Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967 for organizing pro-Palestine rallies and posting pro-Palestine content on social media since the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas on October 7, 2023.
