Hyderabad: Tension gripped Hyderabad’s Old City area late Wednesday night after an unidentified person allegedly vandalised idols and photographs inside a temple at Puranapul Darwaza.
The incident triggered a protest that descended into stone-pelting that injured police personnel and civilians. Several civilian and police vehicles were damaged in the clash which occurred within the limits of the Kamatipura police station in the Charminar zone.
Following the tension, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi visited the incident site early Thursday morning and took stock of the situation.
The Kamatipura police registered two separate cases under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Prevention of Damage to Public Property (PDPP) Act in connection with the incident and the subsequent violence.
In the first case, police booked an unknown accused under Sections 324(2), 329(4) and 298 of the BNS, based on a complaint filed by a private employee. These sections deal with mischief, aggravated house-trespass, and injuring or defiling a place of worship, respectively.
The second case was registered on the complaint of a Sub-Inspector (SI) of the Kamatipura police station, under Sections 324(2), 329(4), 132 and 298 read with Section 3(5) of the BNS, that deal with mischief (property damage), assault on a public servant, and injuring religious places with joint liability. Section 3 of the PDPP Act, that penalises mischief causing damage to public property, was also slapped against the accused.
Later, it came to light that a mob gathered near the temple premises and reportedly damaged a religious flag and graves in the vicinity. As the police moved in to disperse the mob, some sections of the mob pelted stones at the police force following which two personnel and civilians were injured.
A motorcycle was set on fire, and several vehicles, including police vehicles, were damaged by the mob. Police lathi charged the mob to take control of the situation. Senior police officers rushed to the spot, and additional contingents were deployed at the site.
#WATCH | Hyderabad: Tafseer Iqbal, Additional Commissioner of Police, Law & Order, South Range, says, "At 11:30 pm, we received information about a few anti-social elements who came near the Purana Puranapool Dwar temple. They entered and tried to tear our flax… After that, a… pic.twitter.com/Nh0VxH8Rx4
— ANI (@ANI) January 15, 2026
Additional Commissioner of Police, South Range (Law & Order), Hyderabad, Tafseer Iqbal, gave details of the police action to the news agency ANI.
ACP Iqbal assured the local residents that crowd control measures were in place, and that the investigations have begun to identify the accused in both cases. He appealed to the public to not gather in crowds and advised them not to listen to rumours.
Meanwhile, Owaisi told ANI that a majority of such incidents were happening at night. “It is happening on an issue which has no relevance at all. They are trying to create a communal controversy. Some say a poster was thrown, some say something happened over there,” he said.
He also questioned the local authorities on preparedness and management plans. “My concern is what the local police doing over there? You have CCTV cameras. Hyderabad is supposed to have one of the best CCTV cameras, facial technology. These incidents should not happen and especially at that particular place that has a history of communal violence of 1980s and 1990s,” the local MP asserted.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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