Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal activists ransacked a mosque in Uttar Pradesh’s Banda city on Thursday and took away construction materials kept there for the renovation of the structure.

The activists threw bricks, cement bags and iron grills on the road and some of them also made away with the construction materials.

Mohammad Zahiruddin, the caretaker of the mosque, has lodged a police complaint against VHP and Bajrang Dal members.

“They came here in the morning and stopped the labourers from doing their work. They threw bricks, cement bags and iron grills on the road. Later, some of them took away the construction materials with them,” Zahiruddin said.

Chandra Mohan Bedi, the district president of the VHP, claimed that floors were being added to the mosque illegally.

“The local administration had given them permission on December 12, 2022, for renovation work but they were adding new floors. They were into the second phase of their construction work and we opposed it because it was not written in the permission that they can add structures to the mosque,” he said.

“We organised a dharna there because the people living in the neighbourhood of the mosque had complained to us. We didn’t attack the mosque, nor took away construction materials. But our protest will continue if the construction work is not stopped,” Bedi added.

Members of the Bundelkhand Insaf Sena, a Muslim organisation, took out a procession in the city to demand action against the VHP and Bajrang Dal members for “trying to disturb social harmony”. Circle officer Ambuja Trivedi said: “Some VHP and Bajrang Dal members had objected to the construction work at the mosque.”