Mazar set on fire in Gurugram; FIR registered

A mazar (Muslim shrine) at a village in Gurugram was set on fire by some unidentified people in the early hours of Monday (August 7), police said.

According to a complaint filed by caretaker Ghasite Ram, a native of the Barabanki district of Uttar Pradesh, everything was normal at the mazar in Khandsa village, when he left for home at 8.30 pm on Sunday.

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“Around 1.30 am, I received a phone call from somebody living near the mazar that it has been set afire by some unknown people,” Ram said in a complaint filed at the Sector 37 police station.

He said the fire was brought under control with the help of people. “But when I went there, I saw the offerings kept inside the door of the mazar were burnt down. What I have come to know is that a group of 5-6 young boys gathered there and set the mazar on fire,” he said in the FIR.

The burning down of the mazar has hurt the faith of the people and “can cause riots in society”. “Action should be taken against the accused,” Ram demanded. The caretaker said he has been working at the mazar for about seven years and has seen “people of all religions offering their respect there”.

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“This is a decades-old Mazar of peer baba and all villagers worship here in Gurugram. It might be some outsiders who set the mazar on fire,” he told PTI on Monday morning. This comes even as section 144 has been imposed in Gurugram after communal clashes that began in the neighbouring Nuh district spread to parts of Gurugram last week.

The FIR has been registered against unknown persons under sections 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups), 188 (disobedience of an order duly promulgated by a public servant), 436 (mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to destroy house) of the IPC, police said.

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A senior police officer said they are trying to identify the accused and arrest them.
Police also said an eatery (dhaba) near Rathiwas village was set on fire on Saturday night, and an FIR was registered at the Bilaspur police station the same day.

Meanwhile, the Gurugram Police also said it arrested 15 people accused of violence in Sohna on Sunday and they were sent to judicial custody by a court in the city.

(With inputs from agencies)