Shimla: Defying prohibitory order imposed by the district administration, protesters on Wednesday clashed with the police, who used water cannons and lathicharged to stop the crowds from reaching the disputed mosque in Sanjauli subtown.
There were unconfirmed reports of 4-5 protesters injured in the melee and as many in the police ranks as the two sides confronted after the crowds broke two layers of barricades put up on the road leading to the disputed mosque.
PWD and Urban Development Minister Vikramaditya Singh told The Print that peaceful protest is everyone’s right. “This matter is subjudice at the court. We will demolish the structure if found illegal, but we have to wait for the court’s order,” he asserted.
Students had a harrowing time as they were caught in their schools which were not closed despite prohibitory order imposed in the subtown. Government offices, too, remained open in the state capital.
“Maintaining law and order was our priority. We did not use any force. The police used mild force to push people back. In the scuffle, some of the police personnel sustained minor injuries,” a senior Himachal Pradesh government official told ThePrint.
Shimla has been on the boil over the mosque, which local residents and Hindutva outfits call it illegal, after a brawl erupted last month involving a group of men said to be its ‘occupants’. The ruling Congress and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party have been blaming each other ever since the brawl made it to the news. Meanwhile, the matter related to the five-storey structure is pending in the Municipal Commissioner’s court and next hearing is scheduled for October 5.
Earlier in the day, Himachal Pradesh CM’s media advisor Naresh Chauhan told the media that the protest was staged by the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party. “All the people that have gathered, I know them personally. These 20-25 people are BJP workers and they have contested elections on BJP tickets… The BJP wants to make this a national issue, but the reality is that this is not a Hindu-Muslim issue. It is a law and order situation; the law will take its course,” Chauhan told the media.
But BJP state president Rajeev Bindal issued a video statement on social media platform ‘X’, accusing the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu-led Congress of not clarifying its stand regarding the “unauthorised” mosque.
“Far from respecting the sentiments of the people of Devbhoomi, the government injured the peacefully protesting people by brutally lathi-charging them and spraying water on them as if terrorists were standing in front of them,” Bindal said in Hindi in the video.
Later, BJP leader and former chief minister Jairam Thakur met the injured at a hospital. He also criticised the use of force and water cannon on protesters.
Bobby Rana, a Right-wing worker, claimed that the protest was a “people’s movement”. “No outfit is leading it. We are also participating as residents of Shimla. Branding it as the BJP’s protest is not fair,” he said.
The Himachal Pradesh government has transferred Mehboob Shaikh, the architect planner of the Shimla Municipal Corporation, amidst the controversy. The Shimla Beopar Mandal, meanwhile, announced that shops would remained closed till 1 pm Thursday across the town as a protest against the police action.
How discontent spread
On 1 September, Yashpal, who was involved in the brawl, along with Congress councillors from Kasumpti assembly segment wards, BJP workers and Sanjauli residents gathered outside the mosque to protest against the ‘illegal’ structure and its occupants. They demanded the administration raid the mosque, arrest those named in the case and demolish the structure.
Sources in the civic body said the extended structure came up during the past decade under successive governments. After a case was registered in 2010 alleging it as illegal, there have been 45 hearings but the matter remains undecided.
Over the past 14 years, since a case was first registered alleging that the mosque is illegal, four new floors were added to the structure, they said, adding that the matter has been heard 44 times by the municipal corporation without any outcome.
On his part, the mosque maulvi had claimed the structure dates back to 1947 and extended construction took place after 2007.
(Edited by Tony Rai)