Uttar Pradesh (UP) ATS (Anti Terrorist Squad) has arrested a sixth person in relation to the mass illegal conversion racket in a joint operation with the Gujarat ATS. The arrested accused has been identified as Salahuddin Sheikh who is the Managing Trustee of AFMI Charitable Trust in Vadodra.

It has come to light that Sheikh diverted foreign funds received by his organization to Umar Gautam for conversion activities. “Accused Salahuddin Sheikh was arrested from Vadodara and produced before a court in Ahmedabad on Wednesday evening. We have received the transit remand till July 3 for the accused and he has been handed over to the UP ATS team, which will take him to Lucknow”, a senior Gujarat ATS official told The Indian Express.

In its statement, UP ATS said that Sheikh admitted that he knew Umar and to having diverted hawala money to him for funding religious conversion. Sheikh is alleged to have diverted around rupees 30 lakhs to Umar’s Islamic Da’wah Centre currently being probed by UP ATS for its illegal conversion racket.

FCRA (Foreign Contribution Regulation Act) submissions indicate that Sheikh’s NGO received close to rupees 10 crores between the period 2016 and 2021.

In this regard, OpIndia says:

Salahuddin Sheikh’s NGO had received around Rs 4 crore directly from a foreign source during the financial year 2019-20. In 2018-19 AFMI received funds to the tune of Rs 2.75 crores while in 2017-18 the NG received over Rs 1.4 crores. A similar amount was donated to the NGO in the financial year 2016-17 which reflected to be around Rs 1.62 crores. However, the data for 2020-2021 is not clear as yet.

The majority of the funds received by the Salahuddin’s NGO were from UK and American based organizations- Zulekha Zinga Foundation (UK), Majlis Al Fatah Trust (UK), Gujarati Muslim Association of America (US), Firdous Foundation (UK), lkhar Village Welfare Trust (UK) and North West Relief Trust (UK).

Sheikh’s arrest comes close on the heels of three other accused being taken into custody by the UP ATS earlier this week. UP ATS had on Monday arrested Gurugram’s Mannu Yadav aka Abdul Manaan, Beed’s Irfan Sheikh, and Delhi’s Rahul Bhola.

Earlier, Delhi residents Mufti Kazi Jahangir Alam Kasmi and Mohammad Umar Gautam accused of converting more than 1000 economically weaker people to Islam in UP & Delhi through various illegal means and allurements. It has come to light that Kasmi and Umar were involved in the religious conversion of people to Islam from economically weaker sections, children with hearing and speech disabilities, and students on the pretext of money, job, and marriage. During the investigation, it was found that the accused were funded by Pakistan’s ISI apart from some other foreign organizations.

As per reports, UP ATS is probing allegations of funding of Rs 50 lakh from Qatar, Abu Dhabi, and Riyadh. Overall, police chiefs of 27 districts have been directed to investigate the matter in their respective districts. In his statement, ATS IG GK Goswamy said, “No income tax returns were filed by the trust. From January 2010 to 14 June 2020, IDC received Rs 1.74 crore through cash and cheques from foreign countries, most of which were found to be hawala transactions.”

The demographic danger to Hindus is often downplayed by the Islamists and Missionaries. However, arrests like this should rouse the Hindus. We are facing thousands of assaults daily on Hindu society. From the conversion factories of PFI in Kerala to Missionary organisations in Andhra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and all over the country, Hindu Dharma is under assault.

(Featured Image Source: OpIndia)

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