Sonepat: Prayer mats scattered, switchboards broken, decorations lying on the floor. A day after it was allegedly vandalised by an armed mob, a scene of pure chaos awaited visitors at a mosque in village Sandal Kalan of Haryana’s Sonepat.
The mosque — a small room inside a house, which can accommodate around 20-30 people at a time — was allegedly attacked around 9.30 pm during prayer time, amid Ramzan festivities.
According to some witness accounts, over a dozen men armed with lathis and knives barged into the small mosque, which caters to the roughly 20 Muslim households of the village.
Police have arrested 16 of the 19 people accused in the case.
The charges invoked include sections 148 (whoever is guilty of rioting, armed with deadly weapon shall be punished), 149 (unlawful assembly), 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion), 295-A (deliberate and malicious intention of outraging religious feelings), 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 452 (house trespass having made preparation for causing hurt) and 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation).
Sonepat police commissioner B. Satheesh Balan described the attack as “unprovoked”.
“We are investigating the matter. The attack was carried out by anti-social elements in the village. We can’t let such incidents take place. This will be dealt with strictly,” he added.
For many of the Muslim residents of the village, the attack — which came three years after a mosque loudspeaker is said to have ignited tensions in Sandal Kalan — was unprecedented.
“I couldn’t believe my eyes,” said Saleem Khan, 45, of the attack. “My great-grandfather lived in this village and this is the first time I witnessed violence of this kind.”
While efforts are underway by the village panchayat to maintain peace — an appeal has been made to the Hindus to apologise to their Muslim neighbours — some local residents have dismissed the attack as a conspiracy.
A section of the local Hindu community alleged a ploy was afoot to build a bigger mosque — and adding to the chorus are local members of the VHP and RSS.
“They get people from other areas to organise prayers,” said Roshan, 42, a resident of the village. “They aren’t innocent. What is the need of the outsiders? They want to spread Islam.”
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‘I shut door and lights’
Tosima, 40, was lulling her son to sleep when she first heard some “commotion” Sunday night.
“I saw a mob of over 30-35 people holding sticks and knives,” she told ThePrint. “They were running towards the masjid and hitting anyone who came in between.”
Scared, Tosima said she “shut the door and lights and pretended to be asleep” even as she “heard the screams of my neighbours crying for help”.
Saleem Khan, quoted above, said he had just returned home from work when he heard that a mob was attacking those offering namaz.
“I immediately rushed to the spot and what I saw was shocking,” Khan added.
The mob, he said, was attacking men, women and children with batons while threatening to kill them.
Local residents say the first strain of animosity between the two communities emerged three years ago over a loudspeaker. It was Eid, and the Muslim community had placed a loudspeaker to call for prayers atop the mosque.
Manija, a 21-year-old resident of Sandal Kalan, said the community was “asked to remove the loudspeaker or face consequences”.
“It was Eid. They didn’t care and we immediately removed it,” she added.
Manija said she sustained a stab injury to her leg Sunday when she stepped out to protect her brother Shoaib, 17, from the mob.
“They were unnecessarily hitting him. I wrapped my arms around him, thinking they will stop seeing a woman. But they stabbed me in the leg,” she said, pointing to her bandaged calf that was covered with dried blood.
Then, on Ram Navami, young men allegedly came to the village and started chanting “Jai Shri Ram”.
“I thought they are kids and joking,” said Asma, 32. “I never thought they hold such malice against us.”
A Hindu villager, requesting anonymity, said it would be wrong to place the onus of the loudspeaker incident on them alone.
“If they (Muslims) wanted to put a loudspeaker, they should have discussed it with the villagers if it would cause us any problem,” the villager added. “But they chose to ignore us.”
‘VHP and Sangh will ensure justice’
After the mosque attack, a panchayat was called at the village temple, where the residents were asked to ensure brotherhood and apologise to the Muslim community.
“Don’t fall into this trap of religious violence,” said Shradhanand Solanki, one of the speakers at the panchayat. “We all are one. A few men have maligned the name of the entire community. We should apologise to them.”
However, a different message is being sent by local Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) members. “This is all done by the Tablighi Jamaat,” Haryana VHP president Narendra Kumar said to ThePrint at the house of one of the accused, referring to the Sunni Islamic missionary organisation.
“Earlier, these Muslims used to live like Hindus but now they have become extremists because of the Jamaat.”
He said “there are only a few Muslim houses and they have overpowered the Hindu majority here”. “Because these Hindus are innocent,” he added.
Sangh member Sadhvi Radhika Nand Saraswati echoed him, and assured the families of the accused that the RSS and the VHP are there to help them.
“If I want, all the Hindus will come together. The BJP can’t reach everywhere, that’s why we go,” she said. “The men arrested by the police are innocent and we will get them out of jail.”
(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)
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