Clashes erupt in UP’s Sambhal over mosque survey, tear gas fired
text_fields
Sambhal: The police fired tear gas shells when violent clashes erupted in Uttar Pradesh's Sambhal on Sunday after a group attempted to stop the survey of a mosque, India Today reported.
A team arrived here to carry out the survey based on a court order over a complaint that Mughals had demolished a temple to build a mosque.
Hundreds of protesters who gathered near the Shahi Jama Masjid opposed the survey, before throwing stones at the survey team.
The crowd went on protesting, despite the head of Jama Masjid from inside the mosque urged them to disperse.
Subsequently, senior police officials stepped in to pacify the crowd, but they started pelting stones.
Uttar Pradesh top cop Prashant Kumar said that some anti-social elements pelted stones when a survey was being conducted in Sambhal, adding ‘Police and senior officers are present on the spot. The situation is under control, the police will identify the stone pelters and take appropriate legal action’.
Sambhal District Magistrate Rajender Pensiyia reportedly said nevertheless the violence, the Advocate Commission completed the survey alongside having videographed and photographed the process.
It is reported that the Commission will present its report to the court on November 29.
The survey was initiated after Supreme Court lawyer Vishnu Shankar Jain claimed in a complaint that the mosque was originally a temple.
Heavy police was deployed over the past few days after the area reported heightened tension and prohibitory orders were clamped to stop gathering of people.
A similar survey was previously carried out on November 19 in the presence of members of the mosque’s management committee and local police.
Advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain claimed in his complaint that Mughal emperor Babar partially demolished in 1529 the temple, Hari Har Mandir, which had stood at the site of the masjid.
Vishnu Jain and his father Hari Shankar Jain represented the Hindu side in disputes related to places of worship including the Gyanvapi-Kashi Vishwanath case.
