Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh: A tense situation unfolded on Saturday in the villages of Bhagwanpur and Bulaqigarh in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, following the discovery of ‘I love Muhammad’ graffiti on the walls of five temples. The incident prompted an immediate deployment of police forces to the area.
Senior police officials, along with forensic experts, arrived at the scene to investigate. Authorities are currently reviewing CCTV footage from the surrounding areas in an effort to identify the individuals responsible for the graffiti.
Police have registered a case against eight named individuals: Mustaqeem, Gul Mohammad, Sulaiman, Sonu, Allahbaksh, Hameed, and Yousuf. Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Neeraj Kumar stated, “We are taking this incident very seriously and investigating all aspects thoroughly. No guilty person will be spared.”
In addition to the graffiti, police are exploring a potential link to a land dispute, according to SSP Kumar.
Meanwhile, Gyanendra Singh Chauhan, the All-India Vice President of the Karni Sena, who filed the police complaint, has criticized the local police, alleging negligence. Chauhan claimed that the villager who first reported the incident was initially detained by the police, and suggested that authorities attempted to remove the graffiti to downplay the situation.
This event follows a previous controversy surrounding ‘I Love Muhammad’ graffiti and posters that emerged several months ago. In Kanpur, police filed an FIR against 24 people after boards displaying the slogan were reportedly put up during an Eid-e-Milad-un-Nabi procession. That incident led to protests in Uttar Pradesh and other parts of the country.