Lucknow: The Lucknow police on Friday cane-charged members of Shia community while they were marching to lay siege of the house of Uttar Pradesh Waqf minister Mohd Azam Khan over the alleged move to appoint “corrupt persons” to the Shia Central Board in the state. During the melee with the police, one of the protesters suffered a heart attack and died on way to the hospital.
Immediately after the prayer of the `Last Friday of Ramzan’, a procession, led by prominent Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawwad, was taken out here to demonstrate at Azam Khan’s residence, but the agitators were not allowed to proceed beyond Shaeed Smarak and as a precaution barricades were put up near it to stop them. Unable to bear the skirmishes between the police and his fellow protesters, one M Hussain, a 62 year-old man from the Chowk area of the city collapsed and was rushed to the trauma centre for treatment..
At the Trauma Centre, the doctors declared him brought dead. The irate members of the Shia community thereafter indulged in arson and torched a few motorcycles parked outside the hospital, said the police.
When the protesters tried to force their way and march ahead, they were cane-charged by the police.
Sharply reacting to the police action, Maulana Jawwad said the procession was being taken out peacefully, but “on the directive of Azam, police lathi-charged people observing fast in which several persons, including elderly and children were injured”.
The Maulana alleged that the election of Shia Central Waqf Board are scheduled soon and Azam intends to appoint people who intend to loot Waqf properties.