Sensational revelations about the violence related to the construction of an archway in Panki Bazar, Palamu, Jharkhand, have come to the fore. The locals claimed that long before the violence occurred, preparations were underway for such an event, and an excuse was found in the guise of an archway (welcome gate) being constructed for Mahashivaratri.
The locals told OpIndia that there is a mosque nearby that Muslims in the area refer to as Jama Masjid, which is said to be 200 meters from an old Lord Hanuman temple. In this temple, Aarti used to be held every Tuesday. Up to 200 people used to gather on Tuesdays in the temple.
To ensure that everyone could hear the Aarti, loudspeakers were set up at the temple for the Aarti. The nearby residents also began playing bhajans and other devotional songs.
Following this, the mosque committee members began to voice their disapproval, claiming that this was creating difficulty for them in offering Namaz.
Hindus, on the other hand, said that Namaz is offered five times per day and that congregational aarti is held once a week. There is no rationale for Muslims to object to Aarti, just as Hindus never did to Namaz despite it being offered five times a day. Hindus said that there are 36 loudspeakers placed in the mosque, yet how can they have any problem in offering Namaz.
According to locals, 36 loudspeakers have been installed at the mosque, and they are used for Azaan five times a day at full volume. Under the condition of anonymity, a person stated that the noise of the loudspeakers during Namaz makes it difficult to even talk to customers in the shop. The police started summoning Hindus to the police station in response to the complaints from the Muslim side.
Subsequently, this resulted in violence from the members of the Masjid Committee. Bricks and stones were carried in a tractor owned by a man named Haroon and kept on the roofs of homes of Muslims and mosques a day before the incident. On the day of violence, stones were pelted from these rooftops.
Some claim that because the neighbourhood is not an upper caste (Savarn) dominated area, Muslims there regularly harass and mistreat Hindus.
Hindu wedding functions and festivals are disturbed as well by the Muslims there. Due to this, the Hindus are compelled to live in constant fear.
Locals went on to say that Muslims have arbitrarily renamed the Shaheed Bhagat Singh Chowk where the mosque is located as ‘Masjid Chowk’. Despite the fact that a statue of the martyr has been installed there, the Muslims associated with the mosque remain adamant about dubbing the Bhagat Singh Chowk as Masjid Chowk.
The Hindus of Panki live in such a state that they are scared to even reveal their names. One such Hindu person claimed that suspicious individuals frequently come and go from this mosque. There is also a madrasa in the mosque and Muslim children study here. Such people coming here are radicalizing the local Muslims.
According to a local, a Muslim from Kerala visited the mosque’s madrasa around a year ago. He was brainwashing people in the Madarsa. The authorities arrested him after receiving a complaint from the local Hindus. Besides, one Rajiullah, a native of Balrampur in Chhattisgarh, has also been arrested in connection with this violence.
Kamlesh Singh, a social worker from Panki Bazar, while speaking to OpIndia said that the recent anti-Hindu violence was a trial for ‘Ghazwa-e-Hind’. He said that the Islamic fundamentalists are weighing their strengths across the country. Apart from this, Manjulata Dubey, a local BJP leader also said that the mosque regularly interrupted the religious programs of the Hindu community.
