The Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) has denounced the arrest of Maulana Umar Gautam and Mufti Qazi Jahangir Alam Qasmi who were arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terror Squad on several charges including forcible conversions, and they are being investigated.

JIH Vice President Mohammad Salim Engineer said, "the manner in which they were arrested and are being implicated in serious charges and the way a section of the media is overreacting, it clearly shows that attempts are being made to exploit public sentiments by creating a charged atmosphere of fear, intimidation and hatred for political mileage. Such attempts to divert attention from the real public issues to create an emotional atmosphere in view of the UP Assembly election eight months later, are very regrettable."

Earlier, the questioning by UP ATS had revealed that the duo had devised a sinister plan to first convert the hearing and speech impaired children into Islam and then use them as human bombs.

According to the report, the accused Mufti Qazi Jahangir Qasmi and Mohammad Umar Gautam received funding from Pakistan’s notorious spy agency ISI and other global sources. The duo from Delhi's Jamia Nagar was apparently involved in coercively converting around 1000 people to Islam and especially targeting deaf and mute individuals along with women and children for the same.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has ordered action under the Gangster Act and National Security Act (NSA) against those involved in the conversion of deaf and dumb and physically challenged children and youth.

The Chief Minister has ordered stringent action and asked the agencies to further probe the case and dig deeper to arrest all those involved.

The state government has also ordered seizure of properties of the accused.

With IANS Inputs