A day after the Uttar Pradesh Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) arrested two persons for allegedly converting more than a thousand people to Islam, the state government on Tuesday directed the investigating agency and the police to trace other people involved in such activities and invoke the stringent provisions of National Security Act (NSA) and Uttar Pradesh Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act against them. The government also directed the police to probe the financial transactions of the accused and confiscate their properties. On Monday, the ATS arrested Mufti Kazi Jahageer Kasmi and Mohammad Umar Gautam and accused them and their associated of running an organisation, Islamic Dawah Center (IDC), which had allegedly been carrying out large-scale conversion. Umar Gautam had reportedly converted to Islam in the 1980s. The arrested persons were produced before a local court in Lucknow on Tuesday. “The court has sent the accused to seven-day police custody. We are yet to trace the associates of those arrested,” said Additional Director General, Law and Order, Prashant Kumar. He added that the arrested persons also used to target women as well as unemployed, poor and physically challenged people. The police will look into invoking the Gangster Act and NSA against the accused, Kumar said. Earlier in the day, the government directed the police to trace those who allegedly force people to convert into other religions, operating in the state and take strict action against them as they are ruining the heterogeneous structure of society.
