Violence fuelled by rumours,tempers

The muezzin of the Rafiqabad masjid,Abdul Qadir,told Newsline that Gaffar had brought the torn pages to him.

“Gaffar brought the torn pages here around 12.45 pm. He did not know what to do. I called community elders and showed them the pages,” Qadir said.

It was Qadir who eventually took the pages to the Masuri police station and asked for an FIR against unknown miscreants.

“I was there till the mob began throwing stones and firing at the police. When the situation appeared to get out of hand,I fled from there,” Qadir said.

Qadir recalled how within minutes of the pages being brought to him,a crowd had gathered outside the masjid. “When I stepped out of the masjid 15 minutes later,several people had gathered asking what had happened. Some people asked me if someone had thrown the pages outside the masjid,while others said they had been found near the tracks,” Qadir said.

According to his police complaint,the pages were flung out of the Kasi Express,train no. 4858,which stopped at Adhyatmik Nagar station at 12.30 pm. “A man in the train was shouting abuses and he then threw out several pages,” the complaint said.

The pages not only included offensive language,but a name and a mobile number. “I called the number,but the recipient began shouting abuses against me and Islam,” Qadir’s complaint reads.

“The elders also contemplated burying the pages,as is customary when the Quran is damaged. But some people insisted that we go to the police,” Qadir said.

Unanswered Questions

What were the police doing between 12.30 pm,when the desecrated copy of the Holy Quran was scattered at Adhyatmik Nagar police station,and 6.30 pm,when a group collected at the police station to file the complaint? Rafiqabad Masjid,where several hundred people began to collect to discuss the issue from early afternoon,is barely a kilometre away from the Masuri police station,where the violence erupted.

Despite an escalating problem which started after a group of 15-20 persons approached the Masuri police station around 6.30 pm on Friday,why did no reinforcements reach until around 8 pm? Initially,there were around 30 officers at the station facing a crowd of rioters that numbered perhaps 3,000 at one point. Many in the mob were armed with stones and sticks,country-made weapons and bombs.