The anti-terror squad (ATS) of Uttar Pradesh on Monday nabbed two persons including a cleric on the charges of illegal religious conversion. According to the UP ATS, those involved in this racket were funded by ISI.
Those arrested were accused of luring more than 1000 non-Muslim people and converted them to Islam. Most of those converted were deaf and dumb or suffering from other physical disabilities. A large number of children and women had fallen victim to the conversion trap laid by the accused.
The UP Additional Director General (ADG), Law & Order, Prashant Kumar said that both the culprits belonged to Jamia Nagar locality in New Delhi and one of them was known cleric. He said that UP ATS was tipped off about one such racket in which some people for conversion to Islam lured innocent poor. Mufti Qazi Jehangir Aslam Qasmi and Umar Gautam belonged to one Islamic Dawah Centre (IDC) in Jamia Nagar, Delhi were involved in these activities since long.
They were targeting vulnerable people in the name of jobs, marriage, medical aid and other such things. Most of their targets were physically challenged children and Noida Deaf Society was the center of such activity. One of the accused Umar Gautam himself was converted in similar manner few years back.
The ADG said that the organization IDC to which the accused belonged to, had foreign funding including from ISI of Pakistan and few others. He informed that more than 100 people including boys and girls have been converted to Islam by these accused and some of them were even sent to other states. Their area of operation in UP was cities like Mathura, Ghaziabad and Varanasi. Police has registered case against Jahangir and Umar under section 420/120B/ 153A/153B/295/511 and will produce them in the Ghaziabad court for remand.
