Lucknow, June 22: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has ordered action under the Gangster Act and National Security Act (NSA) against those involved in the conversion of deaf and dumb and physically challenged children and youth.

Two persons had been arrested from Delhi on Monday for forcibly converting over 1,000 people to Islam, police said.   India News | UP Forced Conversion Racket: Hearing on Police Remand of Arrested Accused in Lucknow Court Today

The Chief Minister has ordered stringent action and asked the agencies to further probe the racket and dig deeper to arrest all those who are involved.

The state government has also ordered the authorities to seize the properties of the accused.

The two men in Delhi's Jamia Nagar were allegedly running an outfit involved in converting deaf students and other poor people to Islam in Uttar Pradesh with funding from Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

The arrests were made by Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terror Squad following the registration of an FIR in the case at Lucknow's ATS police station.

Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar identified the arrested accused as Mufti Qazi Jahangir Alam Qasmi and Mohammad Umar Gautam, both residents of Jamia Nagar in New Delhi.

The ADG said Gautam, who is himself a convert to Islam from Hinduism, boasted to the police of having converted at least 1,000 people to Islam, luring them with marriage, money and jobs.

"I converted at least 1,000 non-Muslims to Islam, marrying them all to Muslims," Kumar quoted Gautam as saying.

The outfit that they ran is 'Islamic Dawah Center', having access to funds from Pakistan's ISI and other foreign agencies, said the ADG.

He further said that the ATS had been working on the intelligence inputs that some people were getting funds from the ISI and other foreign agencies for converting poor people to Islam and spreading communal enmity in the society.

The ATS probe has resulted in the duo's arrest and they have been booked on various charges, including those under the Indian Penal Code and Uttar Pradesh's stringent anti-conversion law.

The ADG said the arrested accused would be produced before the court and the police would seek their custody for further probe into the case.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 22, 2021 01:19 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).