Mumbai, India - The Ghatkopar police have registered a criminal offence against Meraj Rabbani, a maulana of the Ahle Hadees sect, for allegedly hurting the religious sentiments of Barelvi Sunni Muslims.
While addressing a gathering on Sunday night at Chirag Nagar, Ghatkopar West, Maulana Rabbani allegedly passed disparaging remarks against Khwaja Gareeb Nawaz, a Sufi saint of Ajmer who is highly revered by the Barelvis. Soon a huge mob of protesters gathered at the venue and demanded an apology from the maulana. Seeing the tense situation, the police whisked him away to safety.
Additional commissioner of police Ritesh Kumar said the Ghatkopar police had registered an offence and would take appropriate action against the maulana, "an Indian passport holder who visits Saudi Arabia regularly''. On Monday night, the police placed restraints on the maulana's speech at Charkop, Kandivli, and on Tuesday afternoon kept a close watch on him at Kurla. He had planned to proceed to Kalyan to address a meeting, but this was not allowed by the police. "We have banned his meetings since they are resulting in tension between the Ahle Hadees adherents and the Barelvis,'' a senior official said.
On Tuesday, a delegation led by Saeed Noorie, general secretary of the Raza Academy, Maulana Moin Ashraf, secretary of Jamia Qadria Ashrafia, Haafiz Sayed Athar Ali of the Dar-ul-Mohammedia, and Yusuf Abrahani, ex-MLA, called on home minister R R Patil and played video recordings of Maulana Rabbani's speeches. Patil has directed the Mumbai police to ban Maulana Rabbani's meetings and take strict actio against him. The delegation also called on police commissioner D Sivanandhan and warned of a serious law-and-order situation if Maulana Rabbani was not arrested.