Damaged window panes, broken doors, walls scrawled with ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and villagers scared to return to their own homes – this is the image presented by the village of Dorana in the Mandsaur district of Madhya Pradesh after a demonstration of about 5,000 Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) workers marched through the streets on Tuesday without effective police intervention.
The day before, the villagers had petitioned the Superintendent of Police (SP) and sought protection, citing messages allegedly circulating on social media calling all “Hindu brothers” to join the demonstration from Amlawad to the village. of Dorana in large numbers with saffron flags.
Another message allegedly urged people to teach the “descendants of Aurangzeb” a lesson for preventing a Hindu rally from passing through Dorana. An earlier demonstration on December 25 was prevented by the locals from playing loud music outside the mosque in the village. But on Tuesday, some of those who participated in the demonstration went up to the same mosque and hung saffron flags. These flags were removed by the police personnel present at the demonstration.
Dorana in Mandsaur is one of three villages in the community-sensitive Malwa-Neemuch region where Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has a significant presence. It has 500 houses with about 82 Muslim families.
Tuesday’s clashes had erupted after demonstrations organized by right-wing groups to raise awareness about donation for the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya. He became the center of attention after videos of a person climbing a minaret to place a saffron flag went viral on social media.
The communal standoff in Mandsaur is not an isolated incident in the state.
In the last week, Clashes have been reported in Ujjain and Indore. also during rallies organized by right-wing groups when they passed through Muslim-dominated towns. On the same day as Dorana in Mandsaur, an outbreak in the town of Begum Bagh in Ujjain led to clashes with stoning by residents in response to the alleged use of abusive language by protesters. On December 29, a community outbreak was also reported in the Indore village of Chandankhedi with stoning from both sides and reports of arson by village residents.
Addressing an event in Indore, the chief minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, warned the stoners. “The law will run its course against criminals, whoever they are. People who cause disturbances will be treated strictly. We have to ensure that Madhya Pradesh remains an island of peace, ”he said.
Since then, the police have arrested five people and registered a crime against 58 others on the basis of complaints from villagers; another 30 in Indore, of which at least 27 are villagers; in the Begum Bagh town of Ujjain, 18 have been arrested on charges under the National Security Law invoked in ten.
Siddharth Choudhary, SP, Mandsaur, told The Indian Express that with prior knowledge of the rally and understanding that it could take a communal turn, he had deployed a force of 100 men, six inspectors, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) under the SP additional.
“We had given clear instructions to our force deployed in the village that nothing should happen to the mosque, which was assured. The flag that was placed was immediately removed by the police personnel present, ”Choudhary said. While he denied that there were any shots fired during the demonstration, he said that some men carried swords.
The police force made sure that the men in the demonstration were confined to the main road and left the town of Dorana as soon as possible. “It was not advisable to use force to control the situation and so we made sure they got out soon. The demonstration was not allowed to meet at a nearby school as previously planned, ”Choudhary said.
When contacted, Sohanji Vishwakarma, Regional Minister (Prant Mantri) of the Malwa region for Vishwa Hindu Parishad said: “Some unidentified people took saffron colored flags and joined the demonstration. VHP has no affiliation with them. We’re trying to track them down (the ones who resorted to stoning). Ours was a peaceful demonstration called just to raise awareness. “
When asked about communal messages, he said: “Maybe it was done locally due to some personal disputes … VHP has nothing to do with it.”
Digging deeper into the demonstrations, Jitendra Chouhan, VHP spokesperson for Madhya Pradesh, said: “Several awareness campaigns were carried out from December 25 to 31 in different areas of the state to raise awareness about the importance of donating for the construction of the Ram Temple “. Some who resort to stoning are smearing VHP’s image. “We urge our workers to guarantee peace.”
Police personnel were outnumbered with more than 5,000 people attending the rally; many were in the 15-25 age group and had joined from the border state of Rajasthan.
A village resident, Shahid Hussain Mansuri, said that an inspector from the Nai Abadi Police Station, which has jurisdiction over Dorana, asked him to remove the flags from the tops of their houses and mosque and to stay indoors for the day. of the demonstration, and that he had the assurance that the police will take care of it.
However, unsure of the police action, the villagers asked their women to stay in an adjoining village on the day of the demonstration. The men stayed behind to defend their property. Police personnel also inspected the village and made sure there were no stones on the terrace.
On Tuesday afternoon, more than 5,000 men armed with swords, sticks and stones and saffron flags chanted slogans, played music on loudspeakers and entered the town. They broke open houses and climbed the mosque to put up saffron flags, says Fakeer Mohammad, 60, of Dorana. The mob looted houses, parked cars, closed-circuit television cameras and even beat cattle tied up outside, he said.
Nazar Mohammad Mansoori, an Armed Forces agent, who was on duty in the nearby Mandsaur district, said his home was ransacked, his vehicles damaged and his brother’s cereal shop ransacked. “The residents were sharing the videos on the WhatsApp group and all I could do was watch them helpless despite being in the force,” he said.
The fraudster Mohammad, 60, said the men at the demonstration chased several villagers, including his nephew Abdul Hakim, who ran for his life and returned alone later in the evening. Mohammad and six other people, pursued by a mob, finally received shelter from a Hindu family.
Hakim’s two-story house was one of the most damaged with the glass balcony shattered. At the FIR, he claimed that thousands of rupees worth of cash and ornaments were stolen. Residents have recorded four different FIRs of theft and property damage after the protests.
Some women who had been left behind also had to flee their homes to the countryside. Shakira Bi claimed that some at the rally fired a few rounds into the air after which many women hiding in the fields started running, only to be chased by the men. “The men chased us into the fields but came back after following us at some distance,” said 32-year-old Mumtaz Bi.
By Thursday, an eerie silence had gripped the village and the police took stock of the damage and cleared the streets of debris from looted houses.
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