SHIMLA: Defying prohibitory orders, thousands of protesters seeking demolition of an allegedly illegally constructed mosque in Sanjauli area of the state capital clashed with the police on Wednesday. The police had to resort to mild lathi charge besides using water cannons to disperse them after they broke barricades and pelted stones.
A few protesters as well as cops were injured during the police action and they were taken to hospital for treatment.
Various Hindu outfits, including the Hindu Jagran Manch, went ahead with their planned protest at Sanjauli despite Shimla district magistrate’s prohibitory orders issued on Tuesday barring gathering of five or more persons and deployment of heavy police force in the area. Initially, protesters from Shimla and nearby districts carrying national flags and raising slogans “Jai Shri Ram” and “Hindu Ekta Zindabad” gathered at Dhalli Sabzi Mandi, from where they started marching towards the disputed five-storey mosque in Sanjauli.
They first broke the police barricades erected near the Dhalli tunnel to march ahead but the police had to resort to cane charging and use water cannons after they broke the second line of barricades to reach the mosque.
School students in Shimla face harassment due to ongoing protest
The police also had to detain a few miscreants and by 4 pm, shops started opening in the Sanjauli market as the situation became normal and the police also withdrew some of its personnel from the area.
Many school students had to face harassment due to the ongoing protest and some of the schools had to hold back students in the school premises till the situation became normal.
Demolition definite, if found illegal: Minister
Himachal public works minister Vikramaditya Singh said on Wednesday if the Shimla municipal commissioner’s court finds the mosque’s construction illegal, it would definitely be demolished but the state govt is bound to follow the rule of law.
The minister said that he had already made it clear in the vidhan sabha with complete facts of the case. He asserted the Congress govt is very sensitive towards the cause of the state’s people and it stands with them rock solid. He added that the case regarding illegal construction of the mosque is pending for the last 10 years in the Shimla municipal commissioner’s court during which the BJP ruled the state for five years and Shimla’s mayor had also been from the BJP as well as the CPI(M). The case is listed for next hearing on October 5.
Stating that there had been an attempt to paint a different picture in this episode at the state as well as the national level, the minister clarified that it is a matter of fact that Himachal was the first state in the country to implement an anti-conversion law in 2006 when his father, Virbhadra Singh was the chief minister of a Congress govt. The Congress govts have sanctioned crores for the construction and renovation of temples across the state, he asserted. “We can have our sentiments. I am proud to be a Sanatani. I am proud to be a Hindu and I have gone to Ayodhya on January 22 to seek blessings of Prabhu Shri Ram. But the govt’s action has to be within the ambit of law,” he cleared, adding that Himachal is not a banana republic.
It’s govt’s failure: LOP
Former chief minister and the leader of opposition Jai Ram Thakur said the use of force and water cannons on the people protesting for their genuine demands was very unfortunate. He added that when it was known that the mosque’s construction was illegal, then the appropriate action should have been taken rather than trying to hurt public sentiments by talking of dealing with them strictly.
He said that the state govt took this issue with extreme insensitivity and the legally required action was not taken under the Congress high command’s pressure. Thakur said that it was a failure of the entire intelligence system as huge crowds from all over the state gathered in Sanjauli.
