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Mosque survey triggers fatal riots in northern India
After fatal clashes in Sambhal, India, authorities have closed schools and blocked Internet access. The conflict is about a survey on the origin of a mosque.
Mosque survey triggers fatal riots in northern India
Lucknow, India (AP) -The authorities closed the schools on Monday and exposed internet services in a north Indian city. This happened a day after four people were killed in riots. The background was disputes that were triggered by an official survey in which it was to be examined whether a mosque from the 16th century was built on a Hindu temple.
Protests and tensions in Uttar Pradesh
Almost 1,000 Muslim demonstrators gathered on Sunday in front of the Shahi Jama Masjid in Sambhal, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. Their goal was to prevent a team from carrying out a survey ordered by the court that goes back to a petition of a Hindu lawyer. The latter claimed that the mosque was built on the site of a Hindu temple.
Measures of the authorities
"All schools and universities have been closed and public meetings are prohibited in Sambhal," said the local administrator Aunjaneya Kumar Singh. The authorities also prohibited external persons, social organizations and public representatives to enter the city without official approval by November 30, while the government is trying to contain the unrest.
Cumbrings between demonstrators and the police
What started as a stab it escalated into violent clashes when demonstrators threw stones on the police. This reacted with the use of tear gas. "Some chaots in the crowd gripped violence, which forced us to intervene with low violence and tear gas to restore order," reported local police officer Krishna Kumar Vishnoi.
Video recordings and escalation of the location
Videos spread on social media show scenes of stone throws and vehicles in flames while the police started firearms. Despite the unrest, the survey continued as planned.
Permanent tensions about religious disputes
Hindu nationalist efforts
Hindu activist groups, which are largely associated with the ruling party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, claim that several mosques in India were built in India about Hindu temples centuries ago, during the Muslim moguling. Experts explain that the Hindu nationalist movements by Modi's inauguration of a controversial Hindu temple on the ruins of a centuries-old mosque were encouraged in the northern Indian city of Ayodhya. This is seen as the political triumph of the populist guide who wants to transform the country into a Hindu state from a secular democracy.
Legal dispute over the survey
The petent from Zambhal relies on historical texts that state that the mosque was built over a Hindu temple, which was allegedly destroyed by the Mogul emperor Babur in 1529. The supporters of the survey claim that they want to uncover historical truths, while the opponents condemn them as a violation of the 1991 Places of Worship Act. This law preserves the religious status of sites as they were in 1947.