People from a Hindu religious procession broke a lock and barged into a 15th-century madrasa in Karnataka’s Bidar town at 2am on Thursday, chanted slogans, sprinkled vermilion and apparently performed some sort of puja before leaving.

The incident at the Mahmud Gawan Madrasa -– an ASI-protected heritage structure that no longer functions as an Islamic seminary -– comes after years of attacks by Hindutva zealots on churches and Christian prayer halls in BJP-ruled Karnataka.

State home minister Araga Jnanendra and local BJP leaders said Hindus performed puja at the madrasa each Dasara --- a claim denied by Mohammed Shafiuddin, local resident and secretary of the small mosque on the madrasa premises.

Asked why Hindus would worship at a madrasa, local BJP leader Babu Wali claimed that “in every Muslim structure in Bidar, you will find some element of Hindu culture” – a remark that appeared to carry sinister implications in the era of the Ayodhya and Gyanvapi controversies.

At least nine people have been booked on charges including rioting and outraging religious feelings, and four had been arrested by Friday evening. Police in Bidar, 690km from Bangalore, said they were trying to identify, book and arrest more suspects.

A video circulating on social media suggests the intruders were part of a Dasara procession --- a ritual march with the idol on the 10th day after nine days of worshipping a goddess, locally called Bhavani Devi.

A large number of men are seen barging into the madrasa, chanting “Vande mataram” and “Hindu dharm ki jai (Victory to the Hindu religion)”. Strains of a bhajan can be heard from the procession, which has stopped in front of the structure, located in Jawahar Bazar in the old city of Bidar.

Shafiuddin, who had lodged the police complaint, said the incident happened around 2am on Thursday.

“The Bhavani Devi procession was passing in front of the madrasa when some men broke open the lock of the gate and entered the compound. Some people living in the area witnessed the incident,” he told The Telegraph.

“This has been a peaceful area with no communal tensions. I don’t know what these people were trying to gain. But luckily the area is peaceful even today as we gear up for the Friday namaz.”

Home minister Jnanendra blamed the controversy on a misunderstanding. “They perform puja at the madrasa every year (on Dasara). There were more people this time, hence the misunderstanding,” he told reporters on Friday.

BJP leader Wali echoed the minister. “Four or five people used to enter the premises on Dasara to do the puja. The confusion has arisen because the gates were locked this time, so more people ended up entering the premises,” he told a Kannada channel.

Wali seemed to be suggesting the locked gates had angered the Bhavani Devi devotees, thus implying the local Muslims were to blame for the controversy.

On the BJP leaders’ claim about puja at the site every Dasara, Shafiuddin said: “I am a local resident but have never seen anything like what they are claiming.”

Local Archaeological Survey of India officials could not be contacted.

The VHP and Bajrang Dal had in May this year performed religious rituals after a column with features of temple architecture was found during the renovation of a mosque in Dakshina Kannada district.

The mosque authorities had explained that local architectural styles were often used to build mosques in earlier days. The district administration called for peace with the promise of studying the matter, and the issue cooled off after that.

In Bidar, the accused have been booked under penal sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting), 149 (common object in assembling unlawfully), 153 (wanton provocation for rioting), 447 (criminal trespass) and 295A (deliberate and malicious acts to outrage religious feelings).

A large police contingent remained deployed in the area for the second day on Friday. “The situation is under control,” additional superintendent of police Mahesh Meghannavar said.

A Persian trader named Mahmud Galwan, who had settled down in Bidar after being exiled from Persia, had built the madrasa in the 1460s during the reign of the Bahmani Sultanate of Bidar. The Bidar district administration’s website says the madrasa “functioned like a residential university”.

For centuries, the university attracted students from several parts of West Asia and Southeast Asia before gradually losing out to more modern institutions over the decades. The ASI has been maintaining it since 2005.