In relation to Sunday’s violence during protests against a court-ordered survey of a Mughal-era Shahi Jama Masjid in Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal district, a FIR has been filed against Samajwadi Party MP Ziaur Rahman Barq and the son of local SP MLA Iqbal Mehmood, Sohail Iqbal. Both have been charged with inciting the violence that occurred on Sunday, which resulted in four fatalities and several injuries.
At a press conference on Monday afternoon, Superintendent of Police (SP) Sambhal Krishna Kumar Bishnoi and District Magistrate Rajendra Pensiya stated that the district’s situation has been under control since Sunday afternoon. Video footage will be used to identify the rioters, who will then be taken into custody and imprisoned. Seven FIRs have been filed overall. Six individuals, including Barq and Iqbal, were listed as accused in the FIRs in addition to the 2,750 others.
After a civil court ordered the advocate commissioner to inspect the mosque on Tuesday in response to a petition alleging the mosque was constructed after demolishing a Hindu temple in 1529, tensions had been building in the neighborhood ever since. On the same day, a “first survey” of the mosque was conducted.
A mob began assembling behind the mosque and on all the roads behind it on Sunday when the team and district officials returned to the mosque, yelling slogans. According to the police, the crowd also flung stones.
After the survey was over, the stone-pelting became more intense, so the police responded with tear gas shells and a lathi charge. The violence appears to have been premeditated. But the investigation is still in progress,” Bishnoi stated, noting that attendees had traveled 10 to 15 kilometers to attend the demonstration.
Twenty-five people have been arrested, he noted. He declared, “We have all the CCTV footage, and the rioters will be arrested shortly.”
Until November 30, the district government has already issued prohibitory orders, preventing outsiders from entering Sambhal. Sambhal tehsil has blocked internet access, and the district government has announced a Monday holiday for all schools.
“Today is a typical day, with stores open,” Bishnoi stated.
SP MP, Zia Ur Rehman Barq, accused of instigating the violence, told news agency ANI, “It is a pre-planned incident. Across the country, Muslims are being targeted and such a bad situation has never happened after independence. The way the Places of Worship Act is being violated. One by one pleas are being submitted and a hearing is happening on the same day itself and orders are also coming, same day DM and SP went and conducted the survey. People were stopped from offering Namaz. What was the necessity of a second survey?”
The Shahi Jama Masjid is a significant religious and historical location for the Muslim community, situated in the Kotgarvi neighborhood in the center of the city. Mir Hindu Beg, a Mughal general, is thought to have built it sometime in the 16th century.
In accordance with section 3, subsection (3) of the Ancient Monuments Preservation Act of 1904, the mosque was designated as a protected monument on December 22, 1920. It is included among the centrally protected monuments on the ASI (Moradabad division) website.
The Sambhal court’s survey decision sparked the most recent in a long line of disputes about Muslim houses of worship that some right-wing activists claim were constructed following the destruction of Mughal temples. On April 8, 2022, a Varanasi court ordered a survey of the mosque complex next to the Kashi Vishwanath Temple on the plea of Vishnu Shankar Jain, who filed the petition over the Sambhal mosque and is also a petitioner in the Gynavapi case.
Indeed, the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act of 1991 forbids the conversion of any place of worship and stipulates that any place of worship must preserve its religious identity as it was on August 15, 1947.
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