Maulana Tauqeer Raza Khan

Syed Tauqeer Raza Khan
Maulana Tauqeer Raza (left)
Born	Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, India
Nationality	Indian
Ethnicity	Pashtun
Region	India
Religion	Islam
Denomination	Sunni
Jurisprudence	Hanafi
Movement	Barelvi Movement
Sufi order	Qadri

Tauqeer Raza Khan is an Indian politician and Islamic cleric from the state of Uttar Pradesh. He is a religious leader of the Barelvi sect of Sunni Muslims and the founder of the political party Ittehad-e-Millat Council. He is a grandson of Ahmed Raza Khan, who was the founder of the Barelvi movement. He also heads the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (Jaded) after he cut ties with the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, claiming discrimination by the Deobandi Muslims.

Raza Khan was elevated to the post of the Vice Chairman of his state's handloom department but resigned following the Muzaffarnagar riots. In 2016 he visited Deoband, which is the home of a rival Deobandi sub sect, in an attempt to forge unity among Muslims. For this he was criticised by clerics from his own sect and apologised after being found guilty of commuting sin by a panel of religious clerics.

Raza Khan is the great-grandson of Ahmed Raza Khan, the founder of the Barelvi movement. He belongs to the Barech tribe of the Pushtuns. His elder brother, Subhan Raza Khan, is the chairman of the governing body of Dargah-e-Ala Hazrat, the shrine of Ahmed Raza Khan.

On 7 October 2001 Raza Khan formed his own political party, the Ittehad-e-Millat Council. In the first municipal election the party contested, it won 10 seats. The mayoral candidate of the party secured 36,000 votes.

In the 2009 Indian general election, Raza Khan supported the Indian National Congress party. With his support a Congress candidate – Praveen Singh Aron – was able defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate and a six-time member of parliament Santosh Gangwar. In the 2012 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election, he pledged his support for the Samajwadi Party, and in the 2014 Indian general election, he supported the Bahujan Samaj Party.