Muslim clerics express anger over Durga Shakti Nagpal's suspension

LUCKNOW/NEW DELHI: Several Muslim clerics have lashed out at the UP government for suspending IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal, slamming SP’s attempts to link the decision to the demolition of a mosque wall and asserting that the young officer was victimised for taking on the sand mining mafia.

The progressive Jamaat-e-Islami roundly criticised the Akhilesh Yadav government for giving a communal colour to the political decision. “It is wrong to use Islam and a mosque as a shield for doing this. There is a clear attempt at implicating the Muslim community in this issue,” Salim Engineer, national secretary of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, a political outfit of the clergy, told ET.

Maulana Yasoob Abbas, spokesman of the Shia Muslim Personal Law Board, demanded that suspension be immediately revoked and Nagpal be allowed a free hand. The decision to suspend her had nothing to do with the mosque but her drive against the illegal sand mafia, he said, adding even the DM of Gautam Budh Nagar had given a report in her favour.

Rashtriya Ulama Council national president Aamir Rashadi Madni said: “The demolition of the masjid wall was as per the lekhpal’s report and the SP government is trying to make it into a Muslim issue.” “The government wants to show that Muslims want that an honest officer be suspended for the construction of a mosque. Nagpal has been used as a sacrificial goat,” he said.

Engineer also sought to know from the state government what action it had taken against officials in areas such as Ghaziabad and Pratapgarh, where communal clashes had erupted over the past year. Similarly, Madni asked why the state government did not show equal enthusiasm for building the mosque at the site instead of fanning communal tensions.

SP can, however, draw some comfort from some voices of support. The conservative Jamaat-e-Ulema, led by Arshad Madani, the proctor of the Deoband seminary in UP, supported suspension. Its spokesman Maulana Abdul Hamid Naumani said, however, that while suspension was correct, efforts to play politics over the issue were not. Naumani said neither SP nor Congress had been great friends of the Muslims.

The Naib Imam of the Aisbagh Eidgah, Maulana Khalid Rasheed Firangi Mahali, said the officer should have been careful because anything related to a religious structure is a sensitive issue.