Six booked as locals block Muslims from entering Shimla’s Sanjauli mosque

Chandigarh: The Himachal Pradesh Police have registered a case against six people, four of them women, for obstructing devotees from offering prayers at the Sanjauli mosque in Shimla, a structure that a local court had earlier ruled to be “illegal.”

According to sources, the incident took place on Friday when a group of people from outside the state arrived to offer namaz at the mosque. Sections of the local population reportedly objected, after which the accused, said to be linked to the Devbhoomi Sangharsh Samiti, gathered at the site and stopped the worshippers.

The group told the devotees they could not enter the mosque because it had been declared illegal by the court, arguing that prayers should therefore not be allowed there.

Police teams reached the spot to defuse the situation, but officers said the accused continued resisting and raised slogans. They allegedly demanded that the Muslim devotees show their identity cards and questioned how prayers could be offered in a structure that a court had ordered to be demolished.

Some of the women involved reportedly claimed they would not permit Muslims to walk past their homes, alleging that the visitors looked inside their houses. A video of the confrontation later circulated widely on social media. Local residents also blocked the visitors and sent them away, TNIE reported.

Police said they had registered a case for disturbing communal harmony and public order, and that the investigation is ongoing.

Following the incident, the Devbhoomi Sangharsh Samiti submitted a letter to a senior police officer in Shimla. In it, they demanded restrictions on the growing number of people coming to the area for namaz, saying their identities could not be verified, and urged that water and electricity connections to the mosque be cut since the court had labelled the structure illegal.