AGRA: A large contingent of police force was camping by the road leading to Aligarh’s Noorpur village on Sunday to deter any attempt to disturb law and order in the wake of VHP leader Sadhvi Prachi’s announcement to perform a ‘havan’ at a mosque there which was at the centre of a row involving people of two different faiths.
Although the VHP leader didn’t turn up in spite of her announcement to visit the village till late evening, several activists of saffron outfits reached near the village and confronted the policemen who didn’t allow them to enter.
The row began on May 26 when a wedding procession of a Dalit family was allegedly asked to stop the music for a while near a mosque where people were offering prayer. It led to a melee and some people in the wedding procession claimed that they were attacked by the people of the minority community.
Later, local police intervened and booked 11 people. It also claimed that the matter has been settled. A few days later, “house for sale” signs came up on the facades of some houses belonging to Dalit families.
Alleged attempts were made to whip up communal passions too. A local AIMIM leader gave a controversial statement and BJP MP Satish Gautam visited the village along with local MLAs assuring the Dalit community a “secure atmosphere”.
And on Sunday morning, scores of saffron activists tried to enter Noorpur. “We are not being allowed to enter the village. The administration has threatened the villagers who are now claiming that everything is normal there,” said Karni Sena president Vikas Chauhan.
A local resident of Noorpur village, Haji Dalveer Khan, said that an unnecessary controversy is being stirred by political parties. “On May 26, at 5:15pm, a wedding procession was passing through an area where namaaz was being performed in the mosque. Since the ‘baraat’ was playing loud music, we had requested them to stop it for five minutes or play it after crossing the mosque. Though the people agreed, a few anti-social elements created a ruckus and some unidentified persons broke the glass of the vehicle on which the DJ was playing the music,” he said.
“This led to a fight. But police reached there on time and impounded the vehicle as Section 144 was in force. The matter was resolved after village elders intervened the next day,” Khan said.
Pankaj Pundit from Tappal area, who lives just 1.5km away from the village and is also former co-convener of Bajrang Dal in Khair area of Aligarh, said that there was no religious issue, it was just a brief confrontation. “The controversy was created to divert attention from the hooch tragedy by a particular political party,” said Pundit, questioning as to why an FIR was registered four days after the incident.
Meanwhile, general secretary of Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU), Anil Talan, who also reached there, appreciated the administration’s decision of not allowing saffron activists into the village. “Misconceptions are being created and this could lead to confrontation,” he said.
District magistrate CB Singh and SSP Kalanidhi Naithani were also in the village. Talking to media persons, Singh said, “A peace committee has been formed and five accused have been arrested so far. The situation is under control.”
This story was first appeared on timesofindia.indiatimes.com