Uttarakhand:
‘Media and social media criminalized us while we were the victims’
Section 144 imposed in Purola due to proposed mahapanchayat on 15th, local residents were in awe of police flag march
After the incident of kidnapping attempt, the local people wanted verification of outside businessmen, but the social media turned it into a Hindu-Muslim issue.
Purola:
Purola Bazar, located about 150 km from Dehradun, wore a deserted look on Wednesday, in view of the proposed mahapanchayat on June 15. The administration has imposed Section 144 here but to maintain law and order and avoid any possible confrontation. Police forces from all over have gathered in this small town named Purola. At 4 o’clock in the evening, when a squad of hundreds of policemen passes through the market carrying out a flag march, the extinguished faces of shopkeepers and people who come to shop can be clearly seen. For the first time, many people are recording this flag march of the police in mobile after seeing such a gathering of police in Purola, meanwhile, journalists of many big news channels of the country are also continuously engaged in live reporting keeping pace with the police flag march. . Till a fortnight ago, this small hill town, which was unknown to the whole country as well as abroad, is in headlines these days. If you talk to the local people and businessmen, they say that the media has made a big deal out of it. We had just demanded the verification of the foreign traders doing business here and to investigate their history, but the reporting of the media and the name of religious war against Love Jihad on social media made us criminals, while the history of committing crimes is theirs. It has been said that those who came here to do business from outside and disappeared after committing crimes.
A fortnight ago in Purola, a Muslim youth working as a quilter in the market and a Hindu youth running another shop were caught by the police along with a minor girl. Both are accused that both the youths were taking the girl away. Local traders and residents protested heavily over the matter and closed business establishments of businessmen running business here from outside areas. The protesters demanded that first every person who came from outside should be verified. Meanwhile, some enthusiastic youths linked it with love jihad by raising the slogan of outsider Muslim youths having love relations with local girls in the area for a long time, seducing them and taking them away. Therefore, during the demonstration, the boards of the shops of Muslim businessmen were broken by some youths. Even the Muslims who came in fear did not open their shops, so the Muslim businessmen who had the option of opening shops outside, vacated their shops in a hurry and fled here. The demonstration regarding this incident in Purola was widely publicized on social media by the people sitting outside in the name of Pahad Ka Dharma Yudh against Love Jihad. Vivek Negi, 28, a resident of Purola, says that this was our own matter and we were demanding that whoever is doing business here should be verified, but it was given a communal color on social media and this local problem of ours was being spread across the country as Hindu Muslim. was given the form of Vivek says that we were victims because outside traders lure women and girls away from our place, sexually harass them, our protest was against them but social media gave it a different colour.
Radhekrishna Uniyal, who has been doing active journalism in Purola for more than two decades, says that the case of abduction of a minor was serious but the police acted promptly and sent the accused to jail, the local people’s concern about their own and women’s safety is justified. But the national media gave it the color of Hindu atrocities on Muslims and it gave Purola and Purola residents the tag of being extremely bigoted and communal. He says that the existence of some Muslim businessmen in Purola is four decades old i.e. twenty years before the formation of the state, they had mixed with the folk culture here and used to take care of the local interests and sentiments of the people. For some years, a large number of labourers, mechanics and people of a particular community have reached Purola for small business from outside areas, due to which such incidents often come to the fore, which hurt the sentiments of the local people, but in spite of this, sometimes there is no conflict. The situation did not come.
Although the announcement of the mahapanchayat to be held on June 15 was made by the local village heads and trade boards, but after the involvement of very communal organizations and famous people with hate statements, the local people decided to withdraw from this mahapanchayat. Local businessman Ankit says that this mahapanchayat was not against Muslims, but was related to verification of every person who came from outside, control on the number of outsiders, efforts for the safety of his daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law, it was necessary to ensure the safety of the population of Purola. But after the way it has been publicized now, it is disappointing to see such a large number of police here.
Muslim traders have not opened their shops after the incident of abduction of a minor in Purola, Budhwa.
News Source : Pen Point
