3 PFI activists held in Kanpur violence case, total 54 arrests till now

The Uttar Pradesh police on Wednesday arrested three people associated with the Popular Front of India in connection with the Kanpur violence, taking the total number of arrests in the case to 54, a senior official said.

The activists of PFI had allegedly mobilised rioters and were in contact with Hayat Zafar Hashmi, the key conspirator of the violence, the police said.

"The trio, with affiliation to PFI, was identified in 2019. They had also been arrested during the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act in 2019," Kanpur police commissioner, Vijay Singh Meena said.

They have been identified as Saifullah, Mohammad Naseem and Mohammad Umar, he said.

Violence had erupted in parts of Kanpur after Friday prayers as members of two communities indulged in brick-batting and hurled bombs over attempts to shut shops in protest against "insulting" comments on Prophet Mohammed by Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Nupur Sharma during a TV debate.

Around a dozen more suspects are still in police detention and being interrogated over their alleged role in the violence.

Meanwhile, Abdul Quddus Hadi (city Qazi) condemned police's remarks that they would seize and demolish properties of those found involved in the violence.

"Agar bulldozer chala... hum kafan bandh kar sadak par utrenge (if bulldozer is used to demolish properties, we will come on street and fight till our death)," he said.

Soon after the violence, senior officials, including Additional DG (law and order) Prashant Kumar and commissioner Meena, had asked their subordinates either to seize the accused's properties or run bulldozers.

The police said those arrested on Tuesday in connection with the violent incident have been identified as Matiullah alias Matti, Azizur-rahman, Mohammad Amir, Sarfraz, Mohammad Farhad, Arshad alias Bablu, Shahenshah alias Nayyar, Saklain, Sunny, Shamim, Mohammad Sartaj and Khaleel.

BJP Yuva Morcha's former district unit secretary Harshit Srivastava was also arrested on Tuesday.

Expressing concern over the probe into the incident, Maulana Hakimuddin Kasmi, national general secretary, Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind said the police was taking "one-sided" action in the matter.