Tension escalated in border district Rajouri on Tuesday as local Muslims took out a procession defying prohibitory orders under Section 144 CrPC and observed complete bandh to press their demand for arrest of all those who wrote Kalima Tayyaba from the holy Quran on a handmade ISIS flag and then burnt it in the town on Eid. The police resorted to lathicharge on protestors at Gujjar Mandi Chowk in the afternoon. Vehicles in most parts of the district were off the road as protestors had raised blockades by burning tyres and holding dharnas at various places. Trouble erupted after local Muslim youth interrupted the joint peace march by elders from both communities, saying that they will not call off their demonstration unless police arrested the accused. Elders from both communities had agreed to take out a peace march in the town to defuse tension following a meeting between them at Government Dak Bunglow this morning. However, as the joint peace march reached Abdullah bridge, the youth started raising slogans and held a sit-in there forcing elders to withdraw from the peace march. They insisted on arrest of the people behind the burning of hand written Kalima Tayyaba on the ISIS flag. Some Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal activists had on Eid prepared an ISIS flag with a black piece of paper and written with chalk a Kalima Tayyaba carrying the name of Prophet and then burnt it. The Muslim leaders are objecting to the burning of handwritten Kalima Tayyaba along with the ISIS flag. The VHP, on the other hand, denied any intention to hurt sentiments of the Muslim community. The group pointed out that they had only copied the ISIS flag and its activists did not know as to what was written on it.
