Sambhal Violence: Police Deny Charges of Shooting Four Muslims Dead; 25 Muslims Arrested, SP MP Booked

New Delhi: Police in Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal district have arrested 25 Muslims, including two women, and booked around 2,500 persons, including Samajwadi Party (SP) MP Zia-ur-Rehman Barq, for the violence that took place during the survey of a Mughal-era mosque.

Four Muslim men have been confirmed dead so far but the police has claimed that they did not use any lethal weapons against the mob. While videos circulating on social media showed police officers and constables firing at the mob, which engaged in heavy stone-pelting, a senior officer maintained that the weapon seen in a widely-shared video was a pellet gun.

Police have claimed they did not fire with lethal weapons, Barq, speaking outside parliament a day after the Sunday incident, alleged that some officers fired with their private weapons along with their service weapons and set their own cars on fire. The Sambhal police are yet to respond to his allegations. 

SP chief Akhilesh Yadav reiterated these allegations outside parliament, demanding action against the police officials and calling for murder charges to be filed against them. He alleged that the incident was orchestrated by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to divert attention from the “loot of votes” in the Kundarki bypoll election, which the saffron party won in a shocking result.

“Around 1.5 hours after the survey began people gathered outside and sought to know the reason for the survey. The circle officer used foul language and ordered a lathi-charge at them. Opposing this, some people pelted stones. And in return, the police, constables as well as officers, fired bullets with their service and private weapons,” said Yadav, reading out a written statement.

The SP chief alleged that the deceased were killed by police bullets. 

Moradabad divisional commissioner Aunjaneya Kumar Singh, however, said that the post-mortem reports of the four Muslims who were killed showed they were hit by bullets fired from country-made weapons. “We will further probe this,” said Singh, who had on Sunday tried to suggest that they were killed in cross-firing between the members of the mob which attacked the police with stones from three sides and even fired bullets at them. 

Also read: Uttar Pradesh: Court-Appointed Commissioner Surveys Mughal-Era Mosque Amid Claims of Ancient Hindu Temple

The district administration has shut down the internet in the area and put a ban on the entry of any outsider, social organisation or public representative into Sambhal without the permission of the concerned authorities. The atmosphere in the district remains “extremely sensitive,” said district magistrate Rajender Pensiya in an order, justifying the restrictions. All schools in Sambhal tehsil were also directed to remain closed on Monday. 

Barq, the local MP from Sambhal, demanded a judicial probe into the entire incident and said that officials who were involved be booked for the murder of the three men who were killed and be sent behind bars. The families of the three deceased persons as well as Opposition parties have alleged that the police shot them dead. “I demand the Supreme Court take cognisance of the matter,” said Barq, claiming that the violence was carried out as part of a “conspiracy.”

Superintendent of Police Sambhal Krishan Kumar Bishnoi said that the police “did not fire any lethal weapon” during the incident. “The police did not fire any lethal weapon which can lead to loss of life. The police did not fire,” said Bishnoi at a late-night press conference on November 24. The officer, however, could not provide clear details about the cause of death of the three Muslims. “Only the post-mortem will tell you about that,” he said. Bishnoi said that the police warned the mob thrice that their assembly was “unlawful” and asked them to disperse. 

Senior officials have maintained that the police only used non-lethal pellet guns, tear gas and lathi-charge to disperse the mob and bring it under control. Around 15 police constables, four police officers and one deputy collector were injured in the stone-pelting and firing, police said.

In total, the police have lodged seven FIRs in the matter. One of the FIRs named Barq, accusing him of instigating the mob through a speech delivered by him a few days earlier after the administration led by a court-appointed advocate commissioner carried out a hurried survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid on the directions of a local civil judge. The court had on November 19 ordered a survey of the mosque after taking cognisance of an application by some Hindu activists who have filed a suit claiming that the Islamic religious site built during the time of emperor Babur was originally a prominent Hindu temple dedicated to the prophesied avatar of Vishnu, Kalki.

SP Bishnoi said that the FIR against Barq and Suhail Iqbal, son of SP MLA Iqbal Mehmood, accused them of instigating the mob and giving it the shape of a riot. Bishnoi said Barq had “instigated the mob” and tried to mobilise people for the “safety of ” the mosque. “That mobilisation was the reason behind the mob yesterday,” said Bishnoi.

The officer also added that they had served a notice to Barq under preventive clauses but he continued to give “provocative” speeches.

Barq has said he was not even in Sambal on the day of the incident. He was attending an event in Bengaluru on that day. On November 22, Barq after attending the Friday afternoon prayers at the Shahi Jama Masjid, spoke out against the survey of the mosque calling it a violation of The Place of Worship Act, 1991. Barq also objected to the large deployment of police force near the mosque. “We are not preparing for some war,” he said, questioning the police presence, three days after the first survey of the mosque took place on November 19.

The 36-year-old MP also declared that Muslims had the “right to protect” their religious places and that they would fight it legally. “We don’t want any fighting in our Sambhal, not against any other religious community or the police administration,” said Barq. 

He questioned why a second survey was conducted on Sunday without any peace committee coordination even when a survey had taken place on November 19. Barq also pointed out that when the lawyers for the Hindu plaintiffs were walking towards the mosque for the second survey on Sunday morning, a group of people accompanying them raised provocative slogans of Jai Shri Ram and Jai Hari Har Mandir.

Seven FIRs have been lodged, across two police stations, in connection with various crimes committed during the incident. Around 2,500 persons, almost all of them unidentified, were named in these FIRs. SP Bishnoi said passport size photos of the accused persons would be circulated in the public with a reward declared for their capture. 

One of the FIRs names six persons and has 200 other unidentified accused. Another FIR, lodged by a police sub-inspector, has named Barq and Iqbal and 800 others. A third FIR was lodged by a local SDM whose leg was fractured during the incident. Around 800 unidentified persons were implicated in it. An FIR was also lodged by a police circle officer against 700-800 unidentified persons. Police said the CO was hit by a bullet shard while the PRO of Sambhal district police chief was shot in the leg. 

Bishnoi said that the police recovered country-made weapons from the homes of some of those arrested. Cartridges of 32 bore, 15 bore and 314 bore were also found at the spot of the violence, he said. The officer said that two women were also arrested after some shots were fired and stones pelted from the roof of their house. 

Opposition parties questioned the administration for conducting the first survey in a hasty manner and raised doubts about the need for the second survey. District Magistrate Rajender Pensiya said the second survey took place as “many features cannot be seen” in the night vision, as was the case during the first survey on November 19.

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra asked the Supreme Court to intervene in the matter, as she questioned the attitude of the state government towards the “sudden dispute” in Sambhal. “The way the administration acted in haste in such a sensitive matter without listening to the other side and without taking both the parties into confidence shows that the government itself spoiled the atmosphere. The administration did not even consider it necessary to follow the necessary procedure and duty,” she said on X.

Civil judge senior division Aditya Singh on November 24 directed the survey of the mosque on an application filed by eight plaintiffs, led by pro-Hindutva lawyer Hari Shankar Jain and Hindu seer Mahant Rishiraj Giri, as part of a civil suit claiming right for access into the mosque. The mosque, claimed to have been built on the directions of the first Mughal emperor Babar, is acknowledged as a “historic monument” on the official website of the Sambhal district.

The Hindu petitioners, however, claimed that the mosque was the site of an ancient temple dedicated to Kalki, the prophesised final incarnation of Vishnu. In 1529, Babar partly demolished the Hari Hari temple and tried to convert it into a mosque, said Vishnu Shankar Jain, lawyer and the son of the chief plaintiff Hari Shankar Jain.

While accepting the plea of the Hindu plaintiffs to get the mosque surveyed by an advocate commissioner, the court said, “The submission of a report of the site might facilitate the court to adjudicate the suit.”

In their suit, the plaintiffs said that the mosque was a monument protected under Section 3 (3) of the Ancient Monuments Preservation Act, 1904. They claimed that they were being “denied access” to the mosque, described by them as “subject property,” as the Archaeological Survey of India had not taken any steps for entry of the general public as mentioned in the provisions of Section 18 of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958.

The plaintiffs claimed that the site was a centuries-old Har Hari Temple dedicated to Kalki and was being “used forcibly and unlawfully” by the Jama Masjid caretaking committee. 

Now, a Prayagraj-based social group Nagrik Samaj Allahabad, comprising of prominent activists and lawyers, has demanded a judicial enquiry into the Sambhal violence to find out who instigated it and into the role of the police in the violence.

The group expressed grave concern at the way legal disputes in courts of law in Uttar Pradesh are being disposed, especially where they concern communal peace and harmony in society. Sambhal was a glaring example of that, said the group.