Tempers in the area are running high as the idol of Lord Hanuman in Itmad-ud-Daula of the Agra city was found vandalised by an unknown person, says a report by Times of India. The desecration of the idol took place in the thickly populated area of Mahavir Nagar where the unidentified miscreant had scooped out the eyes of the idol.
According to the priests of the temple, Mahavir Das, the incident most likely happened on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday as he found the eyes of the idol gouged out on Tuesday morning.
The station house officer of Itmad-ud-daula, Udayveer Singh Malik, said that on Tuesday morning residents living near the temple reported incident of vandalism at the temple. Recognising the sensitive nature of the complaint, the idol was replaced by afternoon and a FIR was loged against unknown person under IPC section 153 (Want only giving provocation with intent to cause riot), Malik said. The police is also looking at CCTV camera footage for further investigation.
Read: Concerns of Hindus anywhere should be concern of Hindus everywhere
Earlier too, there have been several incidents of vandalism of temples across Uttar Pradesh. In one of such case, a Muslim youth entered a Temple in Khatoli(Uttar Pradesh) in July and attempted to break the Murti of Hanuman in it. He also abused the devotees worshipping at the Temple. The people present at the scene managed to get hold of the perpetrator but couldn’t prevent him from smashing the glass at the Temple. The Police came in and arrested him.
In another incident of temple desecration in June this year, a Muslim mob ransacked a temple in Rohanya village in Pilibhit, Uttar Pradesh to oppose loudspeakers. The mob broke the loudspeaker and took away the idols of the temple along with them. Five men, Mehboob, Monis, Israel, Azaad and Alanoor have been arrested and a case was registered for trying to create enmity between religious groups.
In Meerut in June 2019, a Muslim mob entered a temple in Ghasauli village and thrashed a group of Dalit men who had put up loudspeakers in the temple for playing devotional songs. The Muslim community had objected to the loudspeaker on temple premises, which is near a mosque after the men from Dalit community put them up.
