By Omar Rashid
New Delhi: Three Muslim men were killed as a mob opposing the survey of the Mughal-era Shahi Jama Masjid in Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh clashed with the police on November 24. While local Muslims alleged that the three men were killed in police firing, the administration tried to suggest that they were killed in cross-firing between the members of the mob which attacked the police with stones from three sides and fired bullets at them.
A senior government official said that the police only lobbed teargas and used plastic bullets to disperse the protestors and evacuate the survey team from the area after the mob rained stones at them. The three persons who were killed in the “golibari” (firing) incident were identified as Naeem, Noman and Bilal, said Moradabad divisional commissioner Aunjaneya Kumar Singh.
The official said that 15-20 police constables were injured in the stone-pelting, a public relations officer of the Sambhal district police chief was shot in the leg, a deputy collector’s foot was fractured and a police circle officer was hit by a shrapnel. Fifteen persons, including two women, accused of pelting stones at the police from a rooftop, were detained during the violence, said Singh. Three or four cars and a couple of motorbikes parked in the area were also torched by the mob, said the official.
The police said they were searching for those who indulged in the stone pelting on the basis of CCTV and drone camera footage and planned to slap the stringent National Security Act (NSA) against them. “They challenged the police and administration in a targeted way and this was not the act of an unruly mob,” said Superintendent of Police Sambhal Krishan Kumar Bishnoi, alleging that the mob wanted to disrupt the survey work in the mosque.
The violence broke out in lanes near the Shahi Jama Masjid when an advocate commissioner appointed by a local court was conducting the survey in the presence of the local administration and police. The court had on November 14 ordered a survey of the mosque after taking cognisance of an application by some Hindu activists who filed a suit claiming that the Islamic religious site, built during the time of Emperor Babur, was originally a prominent Hindu temple dedicated to the prophesied avatar of Vishnu, Kalki.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.