THANE: Hundreds of people, led by a Muslim organisation, held a protest at Mumbra in Maharashtra's Thane against the BJP governments in Uttar Pradesh and Assam over the arrest of an Islamic scholar and the eviction drive in those states respectively.
The Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) recently arrested Islamic scholar Maulana Kaleem Siddiqui from Meerut for allegedly running the "biggest conversion syndicate", while the Assam government carried out an eviction drive in Darrang district against alleged encroachers, largely drawn from the Bengali Muslim community.
The Ulama Committee Mumbra-Kausa held the protest on Friday against the arrest of Maulana in UP and the eviction drive in Assam, terming both these actions as "illegal". A large number of women were also took part in the protest carrying placards, banners and shouting slogans.
After the agitation, the protesters submitted a memorandum to senior inspector of Mumbra police station, Madhukar Kad, over their demands.