For Sambhal's Muslims, A Mosque 'Survey' Leaves Fear And Anguish In Its Wake

It was well after sundown on November 25 when the body of 17-year-old Mohd Ayan was brought to his home in Sambhal’s “Court Mohalla” in Uttar Pradesh, barely a kilometre away from the Mughal-era Jama Masjid at the epicentre of the violent clashes that killed him. All the shops and houses in the vicinity were barricaded and empty, and the silence of the night was broken only by the sobs of women including Ayan’s elderly mother Nafisa, wailing uncontrollably at the sight of his janaza. “He was a simple boy, liked by everyone in the neighbourhood. He never got into trouble,” Ayan’s cousin Mohd Zafeer said.

Ayan was among the five people killed on Sunday, November 24, after protests over a court-ordered survey of the Mughal-era mosque in Uttar Pradesh's Sambhal turned violent with locals clashing with police. About 15 police personnel were reportedly injured in the violence. 

Zafeer claims Ayan, who worked at a nearby hotel and was one of two brothers, was on his way to work when he was caught up in the commotion of the “survey” ordered by the court of a civil judge after advocate Vishnu Shanker Jain and others filed a petition claiming that the mosque was built after demolition of a Hindu temple during Babur’s 16th century invasion of the region. The petitioners claim their right to worship was being unlawfully denied and demanded unrestricted access to the mosque for Hindus. Jain, who has been a petitioner in similar lawsuits in Varanasi, Mathura and Ayodhya, filed the petition on behalf of Mahant Rishi Raj Giri of the local Kaila Devi temple.

What happened in Sambhal? 

Following the court orders, the first survey, conducted on November 19 (Tuesday) was completed with the cooperation of the local community. On Sunday, another “survey” took place after the petitioners claimed that the previous survey had not been complete. This time, management committee of the mosque did not allow it. 

“We had no knowledge of another survey till late in the night of November 23. Despite the other party’s claims, we were not served a notice,” advocate Zaffar Ali, chief of the mosque committee, stated. The survey began early on Sunday morning at 7:30 am and was conducted peacefully. No changes were made to the mosque's structure. Nevertheless, a crowd started to gather outside the mosque and within a few hours, hundreds had gathered on the roads leading up to the mosque.

There are several versions to what happened next. Locals claim the situation, which had already been tense since Tuesday, boiled over due to the high-handed behaviour of authorities and security personnel present on the spot. In a press conference held on November 25, Ali alleged that the "the culpable officials in this incident are Sambhal's Sub-Divisional Magistrate Vandana Mishra and Circle Officer Anuj Kumar...The SP, DM and DIG were discussing opening fire at the public. I saw the police fire towards the public,” Ali said. “They were using original (sic) guns. I am an eyewitness to this". The police, however, have claimed they did not fire any lethal weapons at the crowd and that it was using only tear gar, rubber pellets and lathis to control and disperse the crowd. 

Soon after the allegations, Zaffar was detained for questioning and in the evening, another press conference was held in which DM Dr Rajender Pensiya refuted the allegations. 

"...Zafar sahib said he saw the Police firing. I want to ask him if he was busy getting the survey done or seeing the firing?” Pensiya said. 

Initially, police has implied that the deaths occurred due to cross-firing between them and stone-pelting mobs cornering and attacking the police from three sides of the mosque, even firing bullets. Moradabad divisional commissioner (DC) Aunjaneya Kumar Singh later confirmed that while post-mortem reports of four of the deceased showed bullets injuries, they were fired from “country-made weapons”. “The incident is being probed,” he said. In the press conference on Monday, authorities made light of these allegations. “Why will UP Police be using country made illegal firearms?” DM Pensiya asked. 

Zaffar was released after advocates rallied in his support outside Sambhal police station where he was detained. At least 27 persons including three women, all Muslims, have since been arrested by UP Police and have been charged under various sections of the BNS. Seven FIRs have been lodged and nearly 2,500 persons including sitting Samajwadi Party (SP) Sambhal MP Zia-ur-Rehman Barq booked for the violence. His father, Sambhal based cleric Mamluk Ur Rahman Barq, stated this was nothing but “politics”. “Ayodhya is done. Kashi and Mathura are already in the works. Now they want to start trouble in other places too,” Barq said.

He added that while parties did politics, it was the common, poor person that suffered the heat of communalism. “Muslims in many parts of UP are being forced to live as second class citizens, despite the community laying down its life as freedom fighters or soldiers for the country’s freedom and protection. That should not be the case,” he said. 

Muslim neighbourhoods of Sambhal, especially in the Jama Masjid’s vicinity, remained boarded up and empty in the days after the violence, despite schools reopening and a smattering of shops opening on November 26 as Sambhal “returned to normalcy”. 

Nothing was “normal”, however, in the bylanes behind the markets where now and again anguished cries rose mourning the death of a kin. The families of the five deceased persons remain numb with sorrow. Like in Turtipurilha, where the family of 17-year-old Kaif mourns his life lost in the violence. His father Mohd Hussain, nevertheless, said that the family did not want anything to do with the “case”.

“Yaha mahol sehma hua hain, sab dare huye hain (We are subdued and living in fear). We don’t expect investigation or compensation. My son is gone and nothing can bring him back,” Hussain stated dejectedly. He said his son was a talented boy who wanted to become an entrepreneur. He used to set up a cosmetics stall in the “Bazaar” outside the mosque, the father said. On Sunday, Kaif left to get some material for his stall and was eventually going to set up shop. His family does not know when he was killed. His uncles informed that it was late in the evening when they found the teenager’s body in Bhadoi government hospital.

The palpable fear is felt in Court Mohalla as well where the families of, Naeem Gazi, 32, who was shot on Sunday, and Mohd Ayan, has been living in fear of police action. “They want the families to change their statements about the deaths and not tell media and others that the men were shot,” Naeem’s mother Idrisa said while his mother-in-law shook sobbing. “We don’t want police to come back here. We don’t want any justice or anything. We just want our women and children to be left alone and our men be allowed to return home,” Laika, his mother-in-law said. Her husband Khusrshid, and a majority of men both minor and adult, left the neighbourhoods on Sunday for fear of being targeted by the police after tensions flared. Police have since denied allegations of intimidating families or local residents, with DIG Muniraj clarifying in a press conference that some people were “questioned” because their statements did not corroborate. 

The fear of action has seemingly driven some like the family of Rouman Khan, also killed in the violence, to start denying the 42-year-old died in police firing despite initial reports about their accusations against the police. 

The families of four of the victims conformed they had not yet received any post mortem reports. “No ex-gratia has so far been announced for the kin of the five victims of this avoidable violence,” advocate Qamar Hussain said. “Instead, the heavy police presence and their hostile attitude has left the community even more scared”. Hussain, who is part of a panel of advocates providing legal counsel to victims and locals accused of violence, said that the survey was “unconstitutional, given the Places of Worship Act prohibiting the conversion of religious places of worship after 1947 except in the Babri Majid case”. It was also done in “haste”. “The petition was filed at around 3-3.30 pm on November 19. The survey was ordered that day itself. By around 5-5.30 pm, they entered the mosque and conducted the survey. There was no public notice given as is the norm with such civil cases,” advocate Qamar Hussain said, adding that the tensions began on Tuesday itself. “Rumours spread about some people trying to take over the mosque or that there is digging inside the mosque and the crowd was restless. But on that day, some police officers like KK Vishnoi managed to control the crowd. “On Sunday, the police personnel acted provocative and high handed”. 

Hussain also clarified that videos of Hindus chanting Jai Shree Ram in the presence of the police personnel exiting the mosque area (via the Hindu-majority side) were shared on social media out of context and eventually construed as an “incoming mob chanting Jai Shree Ram that is marching toward, not away, from the mosque.”. The lawyer added that while it’s hard to pinpoint the exact moment when the crowd became restless and turned violent, before it started allegedly pelting stones at personnel, the physical and cultural jeopardy Indian Muslims face today is far more apparent. “Muslims have been living in a cultural fear psychosis about their places of worship and their personal safety since the Babri judgement and then similar disputes being entertained in Gyanwapi and Shahi Eidgah,” Hussain said. The advocate is nevertheless confident that the current petition will not stand the tests of constitutionality and process in court.

Meanwhile, an uneasy calm pervaded over Sambhal with hundreds of residents waiting for November 29 when the findings of the survey would be shared in court. “It is also a jumma (Friday, day of prayers for Muslims),” a local reminds.