Hours after a complaint was filed alleging a mob attacked a mosque in Haryana's Bhora Kalan village, the complainant has said that matter of dispute has now been settled.
The mob was accused of ransacking the mosque in Gurugram and assaulting people praying inside. The mob also allegedly threatened to expel them from the village.
While an FIR was filed on Thursday, a panchayat was held in the village on Thursday night to settle the dispute. The complainant said the attackers apologised at the panchayat and assured them that such incidents won't be repeated.
Complainant Subedar Najar Mohammad told BOOM, "They were all from our village only. We were praying when they barged in and started assaulting people." He said the attack was sudden and such an incident had not taken place in the recent past.
Here is all you need to know about the latest attack on the mosque:
What happened?
According to the complainant, the trouble began on Wednesday morning when a mob surrounded the mosque and threatened the namazis.
On Wednesday evening, a mob entered the mosque and allegedly thrashed the people who were present inside. The mob was allegedly led by Rajesh Chauhan alias Babu, Anil Bhadoria, and Sanjay Vyas, according to the FIR.
They threatened the worshippers with expulsion. "As per the complaint, an FIR has been registered and we are verifying the facts. Action will be taken as per the law," senior police officer Gajender Singh of Bilaspur Police Station had told reporters.
However, no arrests have been made in the case. Mohammad said the tensions eased in the village after the panchayat and the Muslims are preparing to offer congregational Friday prayers there as per the nor.
Mohammad said that when the tensions over the mosque first arose in 2013, it was decided that no one from outside the village would be allowed to pray there. "The authorities also asked us not to have a maulvi in the mosque," he said.
When asked why the villagers objected to people from outside offering namaz there, Mohammad said, "They are in majority and we have to accept whatever they say. We want to maintain unity and brotherhood in the village," he said.
The Muslims in the Bhora Kalan village are in a minority with a total of four Muslim families, according to Mohammad.
What does the FIR say?
In the FIR accessed by BOOM, the complainant said the mob was led by Rajesh Chauhan alias Babu, Anil Bhadoria, and Sanjay Vyas. They have been booked for rioting, unlawful assembly, hurting religious beliefs, causing hurt and criminal intimidation. In the complaint, Mohammad said that the Muslims in the village are being troubled regularly. "Some of the namazis were injured in the attack. The attackers even locked the prayer hall and one of them was carrying a gun," he said in the complaint and asked the police for protection.
While the FIR said a mob of around 200 people surrounded the mosque, cops say only 10-12 people had entered inside on Wednesday night.
"The villagers have resolved the matter amongst themselves. However, we are trying to find the persons named in the FIR to know why exactly they carried out the attack," ASI Harinder Kumar told BOOM.
"The Muslim families of the village have built the mosque on their personal land. It is not a community place," he said, adding that the area has largely been peaceful.
