Bhopal: At least 12 people from the Muslim community have been arrested in Madhya Pradesh’s Mhow in connection with a violent clash that broke out Sunday night during a ‘celebration rally’ following India’s win against New Zealand in the finals of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025.
Indore police said four people sustained minor injuries in the clash that erupted when the ‘celebration rally’, with youngsters waiving saffron flags and raising religious slogans, passed the Jama Masjid in Mhow.
Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Rupesh Dwivedi told ThePrint, “The clash erupted when the mob raised slogans such as ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ as people were exiting the mosque after offering prayers and asked those raising the slogans to leave.”
Mufti Zabir, in charge of the Jama Masjid in Mhow, alleged that someone hurled firecrackers inside the mosque as the ‘celebration rally’ was passing the mosque “just after the taraweeh namaz (night prayer)”.
“They were raising objectionable slogans. This led to an altercation and firecrackers were hurled inside the mosque. It was someone from the mob who first pelted stones as has been captured in videos of the incident. The footage has also been given to the police for further investigation,” he said.
ASP Dwivedi, however, said police were yet to uncover any evidence to back the claim that firecrackers were hurled inside the mosque. “We are looking at CCTV footage, but so far evidence to prove this has not emerged.”
He added that, of the four FIRs registered, one was filed on a complaint by four individuals who suffered injuries, the second was on a complaint by a Sindhi businessman whose shop was burnt and the third on a complaint from two others whose motorcycles were set on fire during the clash.
The fourth FIR was filed Monday on a complaint by members of the Muslim community.
But the clash has already taken a political colour, with Usha Thakur, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA from Mhow’s Ambedkar Nagar telling the media Monday that youngsters were celebrating India’s victory when “people with anti-national thinking began stone pelting”.
“…there was stone pelting reported from minority-dominated localities. There is enough video evidence and they will be punished as per law. Such an anti-national mentality needs to be crushed,” said Thakur, a former state minister.
In another case reported in Dewas, about 65 km from Mhow, police had to impose Section 163 of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) to control the crowd that had gathered in parts of the district to celebrate India lifting the Champions Trophy for a third time.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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