Sambhal: A police outpost is being constructed in a vacant tract of land right next to the Shahi Jama Masjid of Sambhal, weeks after it was seized by the administration after the recent episode of violence in the area. According to police, the name of the police outpost – ‘Satyavrat’ – reflects the “religious and historical significance” of Sambhal and “the historical and cultural heritage” of the city.
The bhumi-pujan ceremony – rituals to consecrate the ground on which a structure is made – before the construction of the police outpost was held on December 28. In just 15 days, tall bottle palm trees were placed there.
When The Wire Hindi team first visited Sambhal on November 28, this spot had been vacant. But now, the outpost is being constructed at a rapid pace.
A senior police officer said that this outpost was being made to “strengthen the security system” in view of the violence that took place on November 24.
Yet, the ownership of the plot of land is disputed, with some people saying that it belongs to the Waqf Board. The police, on the other hand, claim that it is government property.
The Sambhal Mosque. Photo: Shruti Sharma/ The Wire.
Requesting anonymity, a lawyer from Sambhal told The Wire Hindi, “This land was Waqf-al-ul Aulad (bestowed to the Waqf Board) by the ancestors of Maulana Khalid”. He also produced documents related to it. Ninety-year-old Maulana Khalid is a local resident and the documents appear to claim that this used to be his property once.
The Sambhal district administration has said that the papers are fake. The Sambhal Nagar Palika Parishad – Sambhal’s municipal body – has also filed a first information report against an unknown person in this matter.
District Magistrate Rajendra Pensia said, “An FIR has been lodged against an unknown person for circulating fake Waqf papers.”
He also said that the lawyer for the Shahi Jama Masjid, Mohammad Yakub, has submitted these documents to the Sambhal administration, following which a three-member committee was formed to investigate the documents. The committee found them to be fake.
The DM repeated the police’s claim that the land on which the police outpost is being constructed is government land.
Meanwhile, a new affidavit has also surfaced. In this affidavit dated January 6, 2025, Maulana Khalid has sworn that he and his family have nothing to do with the said land and are not going to make a claim on it in the future either.
The affidavit reads, “Long ago, the deponent used to take care of the place where the police post is being constructed, as did his ancestors. But as soon as he came to know that this is government land, he stopped taking care of it.”
Documents claiming ownership of the land with the Waqf and Maulana Khalid’s affidavit. Photo: Special arrangement.
However, the lawyer who requested anonymity said that Maulana Khalid filed this affidavit out of fear of the police. “He was threatened by the police that if he does not comply, his family members will be implicated in the Sambhal violence and be arrested,” the lawyer said.
Fear
Local residents claimed that the police outpost is being constructed to instil fear in the minds of people.
“For the last six months, they have been after Sambhal…they want to make Sambhal the new Ayodhya, and spread terror by converting the area of Jama Masjid into a police cantonment,” a businessman from Sambhal told The Wire Hindi.
It has been two months since the violence in Sambhal.
Also read: To Absolve Police, BJP Creates ‘Turk-Pathan’ Rivalry Angle Blaming Muslims for Sambhal Violence
When The Wire Hindi’s team went to this district for the first time four days after the violence, the roads were deserted and many shops were closed. Today the shops and roads are bustling but heavy police presence indicates that not all is okay.
The wounds of the families of the deceased are fresh, and the mothers of the boys in custody await their release. Young men do not leave their homes after sunset due to fear of the police. Every evening the police take out a flag march. They often interrogate young men in the area.
Shabnam. Photo: Shruti Sharma/The Wire.
A little distance from the mosque is the home of Shabnam whose 15-year-old son has been in police custody since November 25, a day after the Sambhal violence. “I have postponed my daughter’s wedding. I am waiting for my son to be released… but how long will I be able to put it on hold? I fear it will be called off,” Shabnam tells The Wire Hindi.
People’s fear is not baseless. Recently, while talking to a media channel, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Adityanath had said, “No one should call any disputed structure a mosque.”
Alluding to the Sambhal mosque, he claimed that Ain-e-Akbari says that this mosque-like structure was built by demolishing the Harihar temple, “so Muslims should correct their mistake and hand it over to the Hindus respectfully without creating unnecessary controversy.”
The street behind Jama Masjid where the violence took place. Photo: Shruti Sharma/The Wire.
Families in agony
On November 19, the survey process of the mosque was completed relatively peacefully, but when the team reached there again for a survey on the morning of November 24, violence ensued in which five people were killed. According to the police, about 20 policemen were injured in the violence.
Remembering her son Naeem who was killed in the Sambhal violence, Idris became teary-eyed. “My husband died 29 years ago, I raised my child with great difficulty.”
Fifty-five-year-old Idris recounted that Naeem had left the house that day to buy goods for his sweet shop, and did not return. “His younger son who is four-years-old remembers him every day. He does not even know where his father has gone,” she said.
Naeem has four children, the eldest is 10 years old and the youngest, four.
Naeem’s mother, Idris. Photo: Shruti Sharma/The Wire.
Seventeen-year-old Kaif used to deal in plastic items. “He had left home to go to the market. I got a call from my paternal uncle who informed us that he was shot in the riots near Jama Masjid,” said Kaif’s elder brother.
The family has four sons, two of whom are still studying in school. “Our father got ill and the two of us had to run the household,” his elder brother said.
Noman, 45, was a resident of Hayat Nagar, around four-kilometres from the place of the violence. He used to vend cloth fabric on his bicycle. He had gone to the mosque area to make a sale when he became a victim of the violence.
Since his death, his elder son Adnan has had no option but to abandon his B.Com. degree midway and work to sustain the household.
The Samajwadi Party has given Rs 5 lakh to the families of all the deceased. Financial assistance has also been provided by Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind and other institutions.
So far, six FIRs and 54 arrests have been made in cases related to the Sambhal violence. The police have been questioning people every day. Locals have alleged that the police do not release those who are taken in for questioning without taking some amount of money. “They take anywhere between Rs 1,000 to Rs 10,000 to release them,” a Sambhal resident said, requesting anonymity.
The Sambhal market. Photo: Shruti Sharma/The Wire.
The 1978 riots
On December 17, local MLC Shrichand Sharma wrote a letter to the government demanding an investigation into the 1978 riots. The Adityanath government has already ordered a fresh probe.
About 184 people were reportedly killed in the 1978 riots in Sambhal. In 2010, the court acquitted the accused due to lack of evidence.
A lawyer of the Sambhal district court said, “Many people have come to know about the 1978 riots only after this new order of the government. Those riots had been erased from the minds of the people here. By opening these old files, the Adityanath government wants to scratch old wounds.”
Local resident Muti-ur Rehman said Sambhal had been an epitome of the “Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb” – syncretism. “Despite the three riots in the past [riots took place in Sambhal in the years 1976, 1978 and 1992], Hindus and Muslims have been living here in harmony, trading with each other and participating in each other’s events,” Rehman said.
With the city on the boil, the administration appears eager to keep fanning the fire.
Translated from the Hindi original – published first on The Wire Hindi – by Naushin Rehman.
