In the Sambhal district of Uttar Pradesh, the police stopped the overnight construction of an illegal mosque in the premises of a Madarsa. A violent uproar ensued as the police prevented the construction of the illegal mosque in the Saraitareen neighbourhood of Sambhal district after people from other community strongly raised an objection to the illegal construction and lodged a complaint with the police.
When the police reached the spot, the roof of the building had been already completed. They asked the people to stop the illegal construction and locked the premises to prevent any further construction. The locals had tried to surreptitiously build a mosque in the Madarsa premises in the dead of the night despite the District Magistrate’s restraining order issued several months ago prohibiting the construction of the illegal mosque.
Tempers ran high as police stopped the construction of the mosque. DM Avinash Krishan Singh said police have been deployed at the site to stop further construction and prevent the occurrence of any untoward incident.
According to the police sources, some people had started offering namaz inside a Madarsa in Navada locality in Saraitareen area some months ago. However, a few months later when construction of the mosque started, neighbours from other community lodged a complaint against the illegal construction of the mosque. The police intervened and stopped the construction, with the sub-divisional magistrate issuing orders that no further construction can be done.
But neighbours from other community on Wednesday morning found that the construction of the mosque had started yet again. They informed the police about the incident. After receiving the complaint, SHO Ravindra Kumar reached the site and stopped further construction of the mosque. He evacuated the premises before locking it up.
Some of the mischief mongers then went to the nearby mosque and announced on speakers that police had stopped them from offering namaz and threw them out of their “new mosque”.
Soon, a large commotion of agitated people swarmed around the Madarsa. Women in the crowds broke the locks to the “new mosque” in front of the police. Realising the situation has turned serious, DM rushed to the spot and deployed Rapid Action Force(RAF) to diffuse the simmering tensions.
The administrative officials then had a meeting with the members of the community and assured them that the Madarsa will not be locked and all the activities barring en masse praying can continue at the premises. The DM later informed that after the initial protest, the proposal was accepted by them.
