Sambhal mosque holds Friday prayers, forces, drones keep a watch

Hundreds turned up at the mosque to offer prayers in the afternoon with the security personnel heavily barricading the roads and maintaining air surveillance through drone cameras.

The police, however, termed the move as a “precautionary measure” and added that the police personnel deployed outside the two leaders' houses were soon withdrawn. (PTI)

Friday prayers were held at the Jama Masjid in Sambhal town amid a large deployment of police and paramilitary forces, three days after a survey was conducted at the sixteenth-century mosque on the orders of a court in the wake of claims that the structure was built at a site of an ancient Hindu temple.

Hundreds turned up at the mosque to offer prayers in the afternoon with the security personnel heavily barricading the roads and maintaining air surveillance through drone cameras.

Officials as well as the mosque management said they had not anticipated that the worshipers would turn out in such a large number. The mosque management made announcements on loudspeakers requesting people to refrain from entering the structure to offer prayers.

“Not an inch of place is left inside. You are requested to offer namaz in the mosques near your places of residence,” a voice on the loudspeaker said. Jafar Ali, a lawyer, said, “The turnout was unexpected. Earlier on Fridays, the gathering here used to be not more than 500-600. But today’s turnout was at least twice or thrice the capacity which can accommodate nearly 2,000 people. An equal number of people were stopped on the roads to avoid any trouble.”

Sambhal SP Krishna Kumar Bishnoi said, “We had taken every possible measure to ensure foolproof security in the wake of the court-ordered survey of the mosque. We held several rounds of talks with clerics and members of mosque committee. They assured to make regular announcements from their public address system. Multi-tier security rings were put in place.”

Sambhal District Magistrate Rajendra Pensiya said: “The matter will be heard on November 29 now. So, we thought the survey should be done as early as possible.”

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