The press in Uttar Pradesh, mostly the Hindi newspapers, have run a massive campaign against a popular cleric, Tauqeer Raza Khan, who heads the Bareilly seminary in Uttar Pradesh.
The development comes one day after police launched a “massive manhunt” in search of UP cleric Maulana Tauqeer Raza Khan, who has been one of the most vocal Muslim voices against the alleged injustices against Muslims.
Pertinently, the court of the district judge (DJ) of Bareilly declared him an “absconder” in connection with the 2010 Bareilly riots case, despite Moulana Tauqeer having cited medical reasons in the court for not being able to be present in the court hearing.
Following the court’s ruling, the media in Uttar Pradesh swiftly coined terms such as “Riot Mastermind” and “Fugitive Tauqeer,” among others, which prompted Moulana Tauqeer Raza to issue a video from the hospital.
“I have been admitted at the hospital for more than two week now. I would have gone to the court, but I was recommended an open heart surgery, but I have discharged myself from the hospital. I am not somebody who will run away, but is justice being done?” he asked.
He said that it was shameful how sections of the press in the state had run a defamation drill against him. “We believe in the constitution of the country and will not remain silent against the injustices meted out against Muslims in this country. I do not care If I am killed like Mukhtar Ansari and Atiq Ahmed, but I will not remain silent,” Tauqeer Raza Khan said in a video issued from Delhi hospital.