UP: Man issues death threat to Bagheswar Dham’s Dhirendra Shastri, arrested

The Uttar Pradesh Police on Sunday (3 September), arrested a man for allegedly issuing a death threat to Bagheshwar Dham’s Chief Priest Pandit Dhirendra Krishna Shastri, a police official said. The arrested accused has been identified as Anas Ansari who allegedly issued a threatening message to kill Dhirendra Shastri on Instagram.   

Superintendent of police (rural) Raj Kumar Agarwal said, “We have arrested one Anas Ansari for issuing a death threat to Dhirendra Shastri in a post on the social media platform Instagram.” 

Earlier in the day, a member of a local Hindu group filed an FIR in connection with the threatening message on the social media post at Hafizganj police station. This prompted the police to carry out the arrest of the accused Ansari. 

Notably, Pandit Dhirendra Shastri has been on the hit list of many Islamists and anti-India elements. Evidently, in June, a man named Rajjan Khan reportedly entered Bageshwar Dham temple in Madhya Pradesh’s Chhatarpur with a desi pistol and ammunition. 

Khan was found roaming with a gun in the ‘Parikrama Marg’ of the Bageshwar Dham temple. Though it was not clear why he had entered the temple with a gun, it caused panic among the devotees. Subsequently, some alert devotees called the police, and soon the gun-wielding man Khan was arrested.

Prior to that, in January, a threatening phone call was reportedly made to Lokesh Garg, who is a cousin of Dhirendra Shastri. 

Over the phone call, the unknown caller inquired about Shashtri and explicitly issued a death threat against preacher Dhirendra Shastri before hanging up.

The spiritual leader of Bageshwar Dham, Pandit Dhirendra Krishna Shastri has been a vocal supporter of Hindu Rashtra and has been bringing awareness about the menace of forced conversions. Consequently, he has been asking Hindus to stay away from the conversion mafia. Seemingly, these reasons are claimed to be the reason for animosity among anti-India elements against the spiritual leader which subjected him to repeated threatening messages or phone calls.