Gulbuddin is accused of attacking the police, snatching their weapons, damaging a CCTV camera and torching vehicles
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI — The Uttar Pradesh police are holding Gulbuddin, a mentally deranged man, for his alleged involvement in the violence that rocked Sambhal city in November. Gulbuddin faces charges of attacking the police force, snatching weapons, torching vehicles and damaging CCTV.
Shahid Tantry, a journalist who reports for the Caravan Magazine, put out a video of Gulbuddin showing his mental condition.
“A video of Gulbuddin, who is in custody as an accused in the Sambhal violence case. He has a mental illness, his family told us. His younger brother Faizan told us that Gulbuddin was hardly capable of doing anything and, on occasions, would have to be chained to a ladder at home,” wrote Tantry on X.
The video shows middle-aged Gulbuddin singing, dancing and talking gullibly while being chained to the ladder of the house. Tantry also posted a photo of the chain which is used to tie Gulbuddin with.
Talking about his arrest, his brother Faizan said: “Gulbuddin had gone out to eat and was unaware of the chaos that was unfolding. When the police told him to go back, he started singing a qawwali.”
Gulbuddin was named in one of the FIRs filed in relation to the violence which took place when an administrative team had gone to survey Shahi Jama Masjid. In the FIR, Gulbuddin was accused of attacking the police, snatching their weapons, damaging a CCTV camera and torching vehicles.
Reacting sharply to the viral video, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) chief in Jammu & Kashmir Mehbooba Mufti slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for arresting a mentally challenged man.
“So, who is truly mentally ill here? The innocent man chained at home, or the elected BJP governments, who seem to be bent on outdoing each other in inflicting suffering on minorities to secure power in Delhi,” she wrote on social media platform X.
She further said: “The atmosphere of hate and violence fostered by the ruling party is dragging India back to the dark ages, leaving deep scars on the nation’s social fabric. India, once celebrated as the world’s most secular democracy, risks losing that identity”.
The Caravan report titled “an atmosphere of fear persists in the wake of the Sambhal violence” also sheds light on how the violence broke out in the city.
According to the report, several residents said that, on 24 November, the situation built up as news about the survey spread in the city. “Zafar Ali said that around 9.30 am, the subdivisional magistrate ordered that water in the tank used for wuzu (the cleansing ritual before prayers) be removed. ‘When the water was drained, it flowed downhill, and people saw it. The official said that it was impossible to film the tank because of the water. The imam of the mosque agreed to remove the water on his own. I can’t attest to what happened outside because of the act,” he said.
Residents described this moment as an inflection point. “People thought that, since the water had been released, excavation might start soon,” Zafar said, adding that the people became restless and sought to get closer to the mosque for answers. “The circle officer resorted to a lathi charge to disperse the crowd,” he said. “The crowd responded by pelting stones. The crowd kept swelling — people started coming from all sides — and the police opened fire, due to which five people were martyred,” noted the report.
It also questioned the administration for failing to call the meeting of the peace committee when the survey was being conducted.
“Sambhal has a peace committee, meant to defuse communal tensions. It includes district officials and members of all communities. The committee meets regularly, especially ahead of Hindu and Muslim festivals, but was not called to prepare for either survey of the mosque. (Lok Sabha member Zia ur Rahman) Barq raised questions about this oversight and blamed the police for heightening tensions through its lathi charge.
“Even on the first day, they tried to vitiate the environment, but we did not let it happen,” he said. “What were they thinking? Did they think they were on the border? Did they think that the citizens of this country were infiltrators trying to occupy this land? Such personnel are the real enemies who should be behind bars,” the report quoted a resident as saying.
