A posse of police personnel and the Rapid Action Force stand ready in front of Charminar in Hyderabad on Thursday. It’s business as usual there, with tourists taking pictures, shops doing business and police sirens mingling with the shouts of hawkers. From there, a quick trip to Shalibanda, where the protests took place Wednesday night over suspended Telangana BJP MLA Raja Singh Lodh’s remarks on Prophet Mohammad, showed no unusual activity. But residents say they suspect demonstrations to take place after the Friday prayers.
A person, who lives near Charminar, requesting anonymity, said he did not face any inconvenience in his area. “It’s the Moharram month for us and we take part in events that go on till late at night. Last night too, the events went on smoothly.”
The police have asked shopkeepers in the area to shut shops by 7 pm as a precautionary measure as videos of protests are still circulating on social media.
Protests took place in Shalibanda, Mirchowk and Chandrayangutta on Wednesday night over Singh’s release after the August 23 arrest. Protests continued early Thursday at Ambedkar Statue in Tank Bund and Lakdikapul.
Meanwhile, BJP workers took to the streets on Thursday, and shut shops in Begumbazar to protest Singh’s second arrest.
The police seem to have swung into action after they were blamed squarely for the quick release of Raja Singh on August 23. Syed Amin Jafri, an MLC from MIM, told News18: “Utter mismanagement by city police caused unrest in Old City. They not only imposed restrictions in the area, but also subjected protestors to brutality. They held nearly 30 lakh people in ransom due to a situation triggered by the blasphemous remarks made by Raja Singh.”
Amjed Ullah Khan, spokesman for Majlis Bachao Tehreek party, said the credit for Raja Singh’s arrest goes to Muslim youths who were agitating on the roads for three days. Khan told News18: “Blasphemous remarks against our Prophet does not concern only Old City, but also all his followers around the world. Raja Singh is a rabid hatemonger with several FIRs against him. I have been the complainant in 23 of them. It is high time that the government takes measures to ban his YouTube channel and all his social media handles.”
Community leaders have asked people to refrain from further protests in Old City.
Police records show that as many as 101 criminal cases have been registered against Raja Singh since 2004, which include 18 communal offences.
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