A excessive alert was sounded in Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal district after a court docket on Tuesday ordered a survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid at Chandausi, performing on a petition filed by a mahant who claimed the mosque was in-built 1526 after demolishing a temple that stood there.
Inside three hours of the appliance being submitted round 1.30 pm, Civil Choose (Senior Division) Aditya Singh directed Ramesh Chand Raghav, whom the court docket appointed advocate commissioner, to hold out an preliminary survey on the mosque website to seek out out if a temple had been demolished to construct the mosque. The court docket additionally directed {that a} report of the survey must be filed by November 29.
By 6.15 pm the advocate commissioner and a particular crew fashioned after session with the managing committee of the mosque, petitioners and native officers reached the positioning for the survey.
As phrase unfold {that a} survey of the mosque was being carried out, a whole bunch of Muslims rushed to the place, shutters of retailers belonging each the minority and majority communities had been downed and people dwelling close by positioned themselves on the roofs of their homes.
Apprehending hassle, the native administration has turned the place right into a closely protected zone with a big deployment of police and Provincial Armed Constabulary personnel.
District Justice of the Peace Rajender Pensiya, Superintendent of Police Krishna Kumar and different officers requested the imam of the mosque to attraction from loudspeakers to individuals to keep up peace and communal concord.
The native administration has not allowed Rishi Raj Giri, the mahant of the Kalki Devi temple who has moved the court docket, to go contained in the mosque with the survey crew in view of palpable stress.
Giri has claimed in his software {that a} temple referred to as Harihar temple was demolished to construct the mosque, including that the survey would reveal the stays of the temple on the website.
“We’ve got clinching proof to buttress our declare that the temple existed there was demolished to construct the Shahi Jama Masjid. The court docket has appointed the commissioner after listening to us. The commissioner will submit the report back to the court docket on November 29 together with the photographs and the videography carried out throughout the survey on Tuesday night,” mentioned Vishnu Shanker Jain, who represented the mahant within the court docket.
The declare has added to the flurry of claims made by Hindu activists on various Muslim locations of worship in Uttar Pradesh that every of such locations had been constructed after demolishing temples throughout the Mughal interval, elevating political and communal tensions within the state.
Reacting to the photograph and video survey of the mosque, Sambhal MP Zia-Ur -Rehman Birk, who belongs to the Samajwadi Celebration, mentioned, “The outsiders have tried to disturb the communal concord of the district by shifting a petition of such nature within the court docket. The apex court docket has already directed that as per the Locations of Worship Act 1991, all non secular locations that existed in 1947 will stay at their locations. The Jama Masjid has been a historic place of worship for Muslims for a number of centuries and therefore no try must be made to problem its existence. We’ve got the best to maneuver to the excessive court docket if we aren’t glad by the directive of the native court docket.”
Pensiya, the district Justice of the Peace, mentioned the preliminary survey was over and that the administration was able to conduct a second survey earlier than November 29 if needed.
“We’re in contact with native Muslim leaders and maulvis and so they have all agreed that the communal concord of the district won’t be disturbed following each day developments associated to the problem. I’ve already directed that these discovered spreading rumours on this regard on-line or offline will face authorized motion,” he mentioned.
“Elaborate preparations have been made to make sure peace within the district and a big posse of policemen has been deployed across the mosque to stop any hassle,” mentioned the superintendent of police.
The lawyer for the mosque facet, Jafar Ali, mentioned the survey had been carried out hurriedly regardless of there being time until November 29 to finish it. “We are going to problem the native court docket verdict within the excessive court docket if want be,” he added.
