Defying the prohibitory orders of Section 163 of the Indian Civil Defense Code imposed in Sanjauli in the suburbs of Shimla city in Himachal Pradesh, over a thousand people held a protest demanding the demolition of an alleged illegal mosque in the area on Wednesday.
Fearing communal tension, the district administration had ensured heavy police deployment in Sanjauli, after failed talks with the representatives of the Hindu organizations on Tuesday to suspend the protest.
The roads leading to the Sanjauli area had been cordoned off from all sides and barricaded to prevent the protesters from reaching the mosque.
On the call given by a Hindu organization the protesters violating the prohibitory orders barring a gathering of not more than five persons marched towards the Sanjauli Chowk from the twin tunnels from Dhalli, where police personnel had barricaded the road.
Bringing the vehicular traffic to a standstill, the protesters tried to break the barricade, after which the police resorted to lathi charges and used water cannons to disperse the gathering. Tension escalated and this left several people injured including some police personnel.
The school children were the worst hit due to the road blocked towards Sanjauli.
The protest over the illegal mosque had sparked off after a fight between two persons of two different religions last Friday in the Sanjauli area which later was given communal colour by some right-wing activists who raised the issue of the alleged illegal construction of a five-story mosque.
The issue had also been raised in the State Legislative Assembly by the Local MLA (Congress) Harish Janartha on Tuesday seeking Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu’s intervention following a call given for the Wednesday protest.
He also demanded a strict vendor policy to verify the antecedents of people coming from outside the state to earn their livelihood and also to control the entry of the people.
The Chief Minister had also appealed to the people to abstain from giving it a political colour and maintain law and order.