Police used water cannons on Friday to disperse protestors demanding the demolition of a portion of a mosque built on encroached government land in Himachal Pradesh's Mandi town.
The mosque management committee have been served a notice by the Mandi municipal corporation to remove the encroachment within 30 days. According to the notice, the mosque stands on 232 square metres of land while the approval granted was just for 45 square metres.
Raising slogans of "Jai Shi Ram", the protesters initially held a march in the Mandi market area and sat on a dharna at Seri manch. Later, when they made attempts to proceed towards the mosque, police stopped them and used water cannons to bring the situation under control.
Security had been beefed up by the police in Mandi with the deployment of heavy force after Hindu outfits gave the call for the protest march.
On Thursday, members of the Muslim community had demolished an unauthorised portion of the mosque themselves.
The unauthorised construction was on a plot of land which belongs to the public works department. The department and the municipal corporation had earlier served notices on the mosque management committee in this connection.
"PWD officials had informed us that a wall of the mosque was in PWD land and we were served a notice. So we decided to demolish the wall," Iqbal Ali, a member of the mosque committee, said earlier.
Members of the VHP and the Bajrang Dal have demanded that all illegal structures belonging to the Muslim community be demolished, alongside encroachments on government land across the state.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu appealed to the people of the state to maintain peace and brotherhood.
"I have appealed to everyone to maintain peace and make no provocative statements. No one is allowed to take the law into their hands. We respect everyone. The land of Himachal has respect for all religions," Sukhu said after an all-party meeting in Shimla.
Referring to the protest by Hindu organisations demanding the demolition of the unauthorised structure of the mosque in Mandi town, he said Himachal Pradesh is a state of protest. "There are protests by Dev Bhumi, the BJP, the CPI(M) and the unemployed."
"We all sitting here is a product of the student movement," Sukhu said, adding that protest is a part of democracy but they should be peaceful.
He said the people of the Muslim community have themselves come forward and offered to demolish unauthorised structures. They even demolished a portion of the mosque in Mandi on Thursday, Sukhu added.
The chief minister said that the all-party meeting agreed that peace and brotherhood should prevail in the state and that all unauthorised construction should be dealt with strictly as per the law.
No one has the right to hurt the sentiments of any community, he added.
