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Some background on the issue - Bhoj Shala - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Indore: Violence mars puja, namaz at Bhojshala - daily.bhaskar.com
Indore: Violence mars puja, namaz at Bhojshala - daily.bhaskar.com
Dhar: Nearly 100 persons were injured in repeated police cane charges at Bhojshala as mob turned violent in protest against the administration's measures to regulate entries for Hindus and Muslims for offering prayers on Basant Panchami in the controversial religious shrine on Friday. Six of the injured are stated to be critical. Infuriated over police action, mob pelted stones, damaged 26 vehicles and set afire a motorcycle.In retaliation, police lobbed over two dozen teargas shells to quell nearly 50000-strong crowd.
A quick mix of violence, religious drama, administrative cleverness and anxious alertness marked the Basant Panchami celebration at the controversial site where Hindus offered puja and Muslim Namaz but neither community was satisfied with the arrangements.
Sources in the office of chief medical and health officer claimed that the injured were given treatment at different places. Unconfirmed sources said that a youth, son of a grocery shop owner of Bidwal village, succumbed to the head injury sustained during the lathicharge. Administrative and police officers claimed that both Hindu and Muslim communities were allowed to offer prayers at the Bhojshala. However, Shahar qazi Wakarullah Siddique and other Muslim leaders denied having offered Jumma Namaaz, and sought details of the people who did so. IGP Anuradha Shankar said over 50,000 Hindus offered prayers at the Bhojshala and 16 Muslims offered namaaz at adjescent mosque. The devotees got angry when heavily deployed police conducted search of every person entering the premises. The Bhoj Utsav Samiti functionaries objected to the searches and threatened to boycott prayers.
They later acceded to the officials' requests. Situation worsened in the afternoon when the procession of Goddess Saraswati reached the Bhojshala minutes before the administration had declared plan to evacuate the premises for Muslims to offer Namaz. Dhar collector C B Singh later announced that the prayers will go uninterrupted. He made arrangements for Muslims to offer prayer through separate gates.
While a delegation of Muslims was offering Namaz, violence broke out in two places in Dhar - near Bhojshala where people pelted stones at the police and on the MG Road where a place of religious worship was damaged. In both the cases, police lobbed teargas shells and cane charged the crowd to gain control. Even senior Samiti leaders were not spared by the police despite presence of RSS functionaries and people close to BJP.