Today (11 October), Shukla told this correspondent that he had received a call from the thana.

“A lady officer called up. She asked why I had taken the matter to social media. I replied that I would take the matter to the highest authorities. She told me to calm down and said that the police would cooperate with him,” said Shukla.

He added that the lady officer told him that the man he has complained against would be caught soon and, as soon as he is brought to the police station, Shukla would be asked to join the questioning as well.

”Madam ji, I am ready to do whatever it takes to see that the man and his group are made to pay for what they are doing to Hindus,” said Shukla.

Dawah Rackets

UP police’s crackdown on Islamic conversion groups began in June with the arrests of Mohammed Umar Gautam and Mohammed Jehangir, who run ‘Islamic Dawah Centre’ in New Delhi’s Jamia Nagar.

The word Dawah (often spelled as Da’wah) literally means “invitation” and refers to the act of inviting or calling people to convert to Islam.

UP’s anti-terrorism squad (ATS) has accused the two of receiving crores of rupees from Islamic trusts abroad in the name of welfare work to carry out religious conversions. As per UP ATS, when they probed the bank accounts of Islamic Dawah Centre, an accounted Rs 57 crore was found.

Last month, the UP ATS made a big breakthrough. They arrested Kalim Siddiqui, who is believed to be the ‘kingpin’ of conversion rackets in north India.

Around the same time as Siddiqui’s arrest, a video of a serving Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer in UP, Mohammed Iftikharuddin, emerged on social media. The senior IAS officer, who is currently serving as Chairman of Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation, is seen sitting with a group of Muslim men, discussing strategies for conversion to Islam.

Punjab figures prominently in this discussion, as a Dai (often spelled as Da’i and refers to someone who engages in Da’wah) narrates a conversion story from the state.

He tells the group, of which Iftikharuddin is a part, that a resident of Punjab converted to Islam even without his efforts. He says the man saw his sister’s cremation and was horrified to see that the fire burnt all her clothes on the pyre, exposing her naked body to those assembled at the spot. He decided to go for burials in future “in order to save his daughters from the shame”.

In a public talk, Kalim Siddiqui narrated the story of a Punjab woman’s conversion to Islam only two days before her death (can be watch here).

He said that a Sikh woman — a resident of Punjab — went to a Pir baba to seek remedy for a body ailment that had been bothering her for several years. The Pir asked her, if she couldn’t stand a slight fever, how she would stand “dojakh ki aag” (hellfire). The woman asked the Pir for a solution. The Pir connected him to Kalim Siddiqui, who proposed her to accept Islam to save herself from hellfire after death.

As per Siddiqui, she agreed and read the Kalma (Islamic vow in Arabic which states that Allah is the only true God and Mohammed is his only true messenger) over the phone. Siddiqui made sure that when she died two days later, she was buried as per Sharia and not cremated.

The UP ATS has said in its various press releases that Dawah groups, in order to convert people to Islam, use various unlawful tactics including instilling fear of hellfire in their hearts, bribing them with money or land, and threatening them with dire consequences if they don’t convert.

Mitti Wale Bab

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