Sambhal mosque violence: Eight months on, fact-finding committee releases report

Indian Express

7 hours ago

Eight months after violence rocked Uttar Pradesh's Sambhal over a court-ordered survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid, that left at least five people dead, a fact-finding committee has released a report on what led to the incident and its aftermath.
The survey of the 16-century mosque was ordered by a local court on November 19, after a petition claimed a temple had been demolished to build the mosque in 1526. The order had been passed by the court of Civil Judge (Senior Division), Chandausi, Aditya Singh. The first survey took place on November 19. It was during the second survey on November 24 that violence broke out.
The 114-page report was released on Tuesday by the Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR), in collaboration with Karwan-e-Mohabbat.
The report, titled 'Sambhal: Anatomy of an Engineered Crisis – Myth, Violence, and the Weaponisation of Faith in a Muslim-majority city', alleged that on November 24, a slogan-shouting crowd accompanied officials and the mosque's ablution tank was drained — seen by many as a symbolic act of desecration — and this triggered violent clashes.
Sambhal District Magistrate, Dr Rajender Pensiya, called the report a farce.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Pensiya said a report can say anything. 'People became violent and started pelting stones at the police and the administration. The entire country heard the announcement when we were requesting them to go back,' he said.
'As far as the rumour of digging inside the mosque premises is concerned, if there was any digging, the soil would have been placed outside,' he said.
Prepared by researcher Prakriti, Advocate Ahmad Ibrahim and activist Harsh Mandar, the report highlights two major issues — the process of the survey and what happened after it.
'On November 19, (advocate) Hari Shankar Jain and son Vishnu Shankar Jain, alongside Mahant Rishiraj Giri, priest of the Kela Devi Mandir, filed a petition in the district court in the morning requesting an immediate survey of the mosque, claiming it was actually a temple,' said the report.
It said the government's advocate in this case did not raise any objections and an 'ex parte judgement' was passed in the afternoon, without hearing the mosque's representatives, allowing the survey to proceed within hours.
'Suspicion and unease spread among Muslim residents, intensified by the lack of standard precautionary protocols, such as notifying the Peace Committee or following basic communication norms,' it claimed.
It further said, 'Police responded to the crowd of protesting Muslims with lathi charges, tear gas, and gunfire. Five Muslim men were killed, dozens injured, and over 85 were arrested. Eyewitness testimonies and videos contradict the official narrative that the crowd was violent.'
The report further claimed in the weeks following the clash, 'police conducted house-to-house raids in Muslim neighbourhoods, filed dubious FIRs, and targeted political figures and activists'.
As per the report, a few weeks after the violence, the Sambhal administration launched an anti-encroachment drive on December 14, specifically targeting areas like Sarai Tarin Main Market, Hindupura Kheda, Deepa Sarai, Khaggu Sarai, including areas near the residences of Samajwadi Party MP Zia Ur Rehman Barq, MLA Iqbal Mehmood, and SP leaders Aqeelur Rehman Khan and Firoz Khan that were affected by the unrest.
The District Magistrate, however, said the actions were taken based on revenue records. 'If it belongs to the government and has been illegally encroached by people, we need to act on it,' he said.
DM Pensiya also said that there was no correlation between the violence and the encroachment drive in the district. 'Encroachment drives are a regular process of any administration and it has nothing to do with the violence. The drive against the electricity theft had also begun by September 1,' he said.
As for the ablution tank, he said it was emptied to check its depth.
So far, 79 people, including three women, have been arrested.
Last month, police filed a chargesheet against MP Barq and 22 others in connection with the case, officials had said.
The police had also said that the investigation found no involvement of Sohail Iqbal in inciting the violence at the mosque, though he was present at the spot. Iqbal is the son of the local Samajwadi Party MLA, Iqbal Mehmood.