After Shimla, protests in Mandi over unauthorised construction in mosque; police use water cannons, CM appeals for peace

Mandi/Shimla (HP), Sep 13 (PTI) Hindu groups held a protest march in Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi on Friday demanding the demolition of an unauthorised portion of a mosque in the town and tried to force their way towards the structure, forcing police to use water cannons to control the situation.

Police, meanwhile, have gathered call details records of people who instigated Wednesday’s protest in Shimla to demolish an unauthorised portion of a mosque at Sanjauli. On Wednesday, six police personnel and four protestors were injured after police baton charged the agitators and used water cannons when they broke the barricades and reached the vicinity of the mosque.

Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu appealed to the people of the state to maintain peace and brotherhood.

“I appeal to everyone to maintain peace and make no provocative statements. No one is allowed to take the law into their hands. We respect everyone.

The land of Himachal respects all religions,” Sukhu said after an all-party meeting in Shimla.

Members of the Muslim community had on Thursday demolished a portion of the mosque in Mandi, saying it was a wall that was encroaching on government land.

The protests in Mandi came just two days after Shimla saw protesters gathered on a call by Hindu groups clashing with security personnel during a demonstration to press for the demolition of an illegal portion of the mosque in the Sanjauli area.

Protests by Hindu groups against the disputed structure in the Sanjauli mosque kept Shimla on the boil since last week. But on Wednesday, the protest took a violent turn with people breaking barricades and pelting stones as police used water cannons and batons to disperse them — something unheard of in the cosmopolitan town.

Eight FIRs have been registered against more than 50 people involved in the protests in Shimla, police said.

“We have gathered records of call details of people who instigated Wednesday’s protest at Sanjauli and more cases would be registered,” Shimla SP Sanjeev Kumar Gandhi told PTI.

“There is CCTV footage, video evidence of people taking law in their hands and people carrying stones in their hands which were pelted on duty bound officers have been identified,” he added.

Gandhi said it was a pre-planned protest to disturb peace.

In Mandi, raising slogans of “Jai Shri Ram”, the protesters initially held a march in the Mandi market area and sat on a dharna at Seri manch. Later, they made attempts to proceed towards the mosque but were stopped by police, who used water cannons to disperse them.

The management committee of the Jail Road mosque in Mandi was on Friday served a notice by the municipal corporation to remove the portion built on encroached land within 30 days. According to the notice, the mosque stands on 232 sq m of land while the approval granted was just for 45 sq m.

This came a day after members of the Muslim community demolished an unauthorised portion of the mosque on their own.

In wake of escalating tension, the Muslim Welfare Committee had on Thursday made a major reconciliatory move urging the Municipal Commissioner to seal the unauthorised portion of the Sanjauli mosque and also offered to voluntarily demolish the portion.