Traders point to abandoned shops, sharing accounts of gangsters turning up on busy afternoons and demanding tens of lakhs of rupees. And the eventual exit of the owners, in some cases temporary and in others, permanent.

But in the past few months, the Shamli police have launched a major crackdown on the extortion gangs active in the area, nearly breaking the back of the particularly dreaded Mukim Kala gang. The improved law and order situation has admittedly brought relief to residents, particularly the traders.

Earlier this month, the police killed its sharp shooter Shabir Ahmed, calling it their “biggest catch in west Uttar Pradesh”. Ahmed carried a reward of Rs 50,000 on his head and had more than 20 cases of loot and murder against him. While Mukim Kala is in jail, most of the gang members are either behind bars or gunned down. Ahmed was the only prominent gang member who was still operating after Mukim’s brother Wasim was killed in an encounter three months earlier.

These days, the market is abuzz with tales of traders “returning” to Kairana and unlocking their businesses and houses. Among them are Manish Kansal, who runs a sanitary business in Sitaab Singh Market, and another businessman in Chowk Bazaar, a wholesale dealer for soft drinks.

“There is relative peace now. No one turns up at your shop to demand rangdaari [protection money] anymore,” says Manish, who had gone to Panipat after a similar extortion demand. Some six months ago, his neighbours rang him up and convinced him to return.

According to Shamli Superintendent of Police Ajay Pal Sharma, around 70 criminals have been arrested and five killed in encounters in less than a year. The crackdown on the organised extortion syndicate started in April last year with an encounter and subsequent arrest of Furqan – who Sharma describes as “the first gangster to threaten traders after a change in state government”.

“…since the change in government” is a phrase you hear often in Kairana. “Sarkar badalne ke baad mahaul badla hai (there is a change in atmosphere of Kairana),” said Shivkumar Singhal, who runs a paint shop in Chowk Bazaar. Singhal’s neighbour rushed to Panipat after an extortion demand but now visits Kairana every week.

It’s an indication that the crackdown on crime isn’t merely a change in strategy by the police.

Intention? Yes.

Because the problem with Kairana isn’t simply a law and order one. At its root is a demography heavily tilted towards a particular community that evidently enjoys political patronage under a particular government, so much so that criminals belonging to the community have a free run.

Kairana today has an 85-15 population ratio. It is a massive shift brought about in just two decades. As per the 2001 census, 52 per cent of Kairana's population was Hindu with the rest Muslims, which altered to 68 per cent Muslim and rest Hindus by 2011. Unsubstantiated reports of 2016 peg the majority population at 92 per cent after about 25,000 displaced Muslim victims of Muzaffarnagar riots resettled in and around Kairana.

Thus the pervasive sentiment is that the gangsters are largely Muslims and their targets largely Hindus is a fact acknowledged even by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) last year. The NHRC probe was carried out in the aftermath of a major controversy when Bharatiya Janata Party MP Hukum Singh alleged “Hindu exodus” from Kairana and brought out a controversial list of 346 Hindu families, who he claimed had exited the city due to fear from the majority Muslim community. Singh’s list was found to be flawed and included residents who had died or moved out for better prospects but the NHRC report had concluded that Hindu exodus was indeed a reality.

Traders, mostly from the Agarwal community, talk in hush tones how the gangsters spared the Muslims and picked on them as they are the most vulnerable. “They knew the ruling dispensation won’t touch them,” said one. They nervously remember the days, not too long ago, when they downed shutters as early as 6 pm.

The minority fear isn’t limited to trade alone. Hindus often complain about Muslim youths passing lewd or taunting remarks against girls from their community – an observation recorded in the NHRC report. “Our girls tell us that meat sellers get offended when they pass by with nose covered [to avoid the smell]. They throw meat pieces at them and pass obscene remarks,” said a trader in Chowk Bazaar.

Their fears compounded in 2016 when a woman from the Kashyap community was abducted, raped and killed by some Muslim youths. What’s worse, the police tried to cover the case up, and this has been observed in the NHRC report too. The key witness in the case was shot seven months after the horrific incident.