A MEETING of the Muslim Defence Committee, Bara Hindu Rao, Delhi, was held recently and passed the following resolutions:-

“When there is Section 144 in force and the public is not allowed even to keep lathi, the Sikhs are keeping swords. The fact cannot be concealed that in the disturbances in Delhi, the record of the Sikh community has not been clean, the keeping of swords by Sikhs and walking on thoroughfares creates bad feeling among the public.

“Therefore this meeting demands from the Delhi authorities to confiscate all the swords … and so long there is Section 144 in Delhi, keeping of kirpans should also be forbidden. …[T]he Government should at once declare the Sewak Sangh an unlawful organisation”

[Meanwhile, as reported from Ghaziabad,] As a result of the failure of the District Authorities and the Provincial Government to protect the lives and properties of the Muslims at Garhmukteswar and elsewhere, Muslims … feel insecure. It has, therefore, been decided not to take out any Tazias or other Moharram processions this year as a mark of protest. Consequently, there will be no [commemoration] at Ghaziabad this year.

Published in Dawn, December 3rd, 2021