After Shimla, protests in Mandi over unauthorised construction in mosque; police use water cannons

Mandi/Shimla (HP): 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.

Members of the Muslim community had on Thursday demolished a portion of the mosque, 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 clash with security personnel during a demonstration to call for the demolition of an illegal portion of a mosque in the Sanjauli area.

Protests by Hindu outfits 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.

About 10 people, including police and women, were injured in the Himachal Pradesh capital and police detained some protesters as well, including Hindu Jagran Manch secretary Kamal Gautam.

In Mandi, however, police had beefed up security with heavy deployment after the Hindu outfits gave the call for the protest march.

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 were 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 square metres of land while the approval granted was just for 45 square metres.

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

Iqbal Ali, a member of the mosque committee, on Thursday said, "PWD officials had informed us that a wall of the mosque was in PWD land and we were served a notice. So we decided to demolish the wall." The unauthorised construction was on a plot of land which belongs to the public works department. The department and the municipal corporation had earlier served notices on the mosque management committee in this connection.

Members of the VHP and the Bajrang Dal have demanded that all illegal structures belonging to the Muslim community be demolished, alongside encroachments on government land across the state.

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

"I have appealed 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.

Referring to the protest by Hindu organisations demanding the demolition of the unauthorised structure of the mosque in Mandi town, he said Himachal Pradesh is a state of protest. "There are protests by Dev Bhumi, the BJP, the CPI(M) and the unemployed." "We all sitting here is a product of the student movement," Sukhu said, adding that protest is a part of democracy but they should be peaceful.

He said the people of the Muslim community have themselves come forward and offered to demolish unauthorised structures. They even demolished a portion of the mosque in Mandi on Thursday, Sukhu added.

The chief minister said that the all-party meeting agreed that peace and brotherhood should prevail in the state and that all unauthorised construction should be dealt with strictly as per the law.

No one has the right to hurt the sentiments of any community, he added.