Following the violence perpetrated on February 15 in the Palamu district of Jharkhand over Hindus installing welcome gates ahead of Mahashivaratri, the administration has decided not to allow ‘Shiv Baraat’ processions in Panki on the occasion of Mahashivratri. 

Palamu DC A Dode, SP Chandan Sinha, one IPS officer from Ranchi, and several other senior officers took note of the situation and inspected the Masjid Chowk of Panki Bazaar. Following the inspection and interaction with locals, the officials held a meeting and decided not to allow the Shiv Baraat procession in the area and also urged Hindus not to get emotional about the same.

Following the incident, sensational revelations have come to the fore. The locals claimed that long before the violence occurred, preparations were underway for such an event, and an excuse was found in the guise of an archway (welcome gate) being constructed for Mahashivaratri.

The locals told OpIndia, that there is a mosque nearby that Muslims in the area refer to as Jama Masjid, which is said to be 200 meters from an old Lord Hanuman temple. In this temple, Aarti used to be held every Tuesday. Up to 200 people used to gather on Tuesdays in the temple. To ensure that everyone could hear the Aarti, loudspeakers were set up at the temple for the Aarti. The nearby residents also began playing bhajans and other devotional songs.

Following this, the mosque committee members began to voice their disapproval, claiming that this was creating difficulty for them in offering Namaz.

Hindus, on the other hand, said that Namaz is offered five times per day and that congregational aarti is held once a week. There is no rationale for Muslims to object to Aarti, just as Hindus never did to Namaz despite it being offered five times a day. Hindus said that there are 36 loudspeakers placed in the mosque, yet how can they have any problem in offering Namaz.

According to locals, 36 loudspeakers have been installed at the mosque, and they are used for Azaan five times a day at full volume.

According to locals, bricks and stones were carried in a tractor owned by a man named Haroon and kept on the roofs of homes of Muslims and mosques a day before the incident. On the day of violence, stones were pelted from these rooftops.

Locals went on to say that Muslims have arbitrarily renamed the Shaheed Bhagat Singh Chowk where the mosque is located as ‘Masjid Chowk’. Despite the fact that a statue of the martyr has been installed there, the Muslims associated with the mosque remain adamant about dubbing the Bhagat Singh Chowk as Masjid Chowk.

Locals also revealed that a Muslim from Kerala visited the mosque’s madrasa around a year ago. He was brainwashing people in the Madarsa. The authorities arrested him after receiving a complaint from the local Hindus. 

Image source: ABP