Shimla mosque row: Massive protest erupts; police resort to lathi-charge to disperse people

Shimla, Sep 11 (IANS) Tens of thousands of protesters, largely locals, on Wednesday gathered in the Himachal Pradesh capital to demand the demolition of the five-storey mosque in the densely populated Sanjauli area as they say it was illegally raised and occupied by immigrants.

Police had to use mild lathi-charge and water cannons to disperse the crowds as they tried to remove the barricading at the Dhalli tunnel.

Carrying the Tricolour and raising slogans like ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ and ‘Hindu Ekta Zindabad’, they later staged a sit-in protest, blocking the road leading to Sanjauli, a locality in Shimla’s suburbs.

Locals said this was one of the biggest demonstrations in Shimla in recent years.

“Our only demand is demolition of the unauthorised disputed structure and protect the demography of the state,” a protester told IANS.

Earlier in the day, a massive police build-up was made by the police to prevent untoward incidents owing to the protest call made by Hindu outfits.

As a precaution, the local administration has imposed Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita of 2023 which bars the assembly of more than five people without permission and the carrying of lethal weapons and arms.

Over 1,000 police personnel along with the Quick Response Team have been deployed in the Sanjauli area, officials said. Even a flag march was carried out on Tuesday evening as a precautionary step.

Also, all the entry points to the city have been barricaded with the deployment of police personnel to prevent entry of miscreants.

The Hindu organisations have been demanding the demolition of unauthorised constructions in the mosque and the registration of outsiders coming to the state.

Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said people have the right to protest peacefully but there should be no damage to anyone from any community.

He appealed to the people not to give it a political colour and to maintain law and order.

Hindu outfits in Shimla staged a massive protest last week after days of simmering dissent.

Holding the Tricolour, the protesters comprising BJP activists and others had demanded the demolition of the structure, claiming that the Waqf Board illegally occupied the land and built a mosque on it.

The protesters have been demanding that the antecedents of the local Muslims should be verified by the police to know their origin as they suspect some of them to be Rohingyas or Bangladeshis.

The Shimla Municipal Corporation Commissioner’s court on Saturday heard the matter relating to an illegal portion of the mosque and listed the matter for the next hearing on October 5.

It asked the Waqf Board and the mosque committee to explain how it became five-storey from two storeys.

Rahul Sharma, appearing for the civic body, told the media, “This is a case of illegal construction. The Waqf Board has been made a party to this so we have filed for a reply. They submitted their replies.”

The Waqf Board, in its reply, said the land on which the mosque stands belongs to it and the extended construction was carried out in line with the rules. However, it failed to provide documents that authorised it to raise the structure.