Three people were killed and scores, including policemen, injured in a street battle on Sunday morning as the now familiar mosque-built-over-temple hobgoblin glided into Sambhal town of western Uttar Pradesh.

The authorities claimed that firing by a mob protesting a court-ordered survey of the Mughal-era Shahi Jama Masjid claimed the lives of “Naeem, Bilal and Nauman”. Local people said that police firing caused the deaths, and that the force had provoked the “peaceful protesters”.

“A team, appointed by a court to do a survey at Jama Masjid from 7am to 11am, was attacked by a mob that opened fire. Three people were killed,” Moradabad divisional commissioner Ananjay Kumar Singh said.

PTI quoted Singh as saying the PRO of the superintendent of police (SP) had “suffered a gunshot to the leg, the police circle officer was hit by pellets and 15 to 20 security personnel were injured”. A constable had suffered serious head injury and the deputy collector had fractured his leg, Singh told the agency.

Since the Supreme Court in 2019 transferred to Hindus the site where the Babri Masjid stood in Ayodhya, multiple court cases have been filed demanding the handover of mosque sites on the plea they had been built by demolishing Hindu temples.

A group of seven petitioners had moved a local court in Sambhal on November 19 claiming Mughal emperor Babar had got the Jama Masjid built in 1529 after razing a Harihar Mandir. Civil judge (senior division) Aditya Singh ordered the survey the same day, setting a November 29 deadline for the report.

The road in front of the Jama Masjid in Sambhal looks like a war zone during the clashes on Sunday as a policeman holds up a rifle. PTI picture

Ramesh Raghav, the court-appointed commissioner, arrived at the mosque for the survey accompanied by his team, district magistrate Rajendra Paisiya and SP Krishna Kumar — allegedly without informing the mosque management.

“The survey team came without prior information because it had a plan to irritate the people and provoke them into violence,” Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav said. “The government wants to divert people from the cheating done in the recent by-elections.”

Local people said the protest began peacefully but turned violent when the police caned the crowd and fired tear gas. The mob stoned the police and torched vehicles, they said, but did not fire.

“Police firing killed the three protesters,” a man who wouldn’t identify himself told local reporters.

Maulana Shahbuddin Razbi, a Lucknow cleric, said: “People must not take the law into their hands; they should trust the process of the court, where we will definitely win.”

Raghav said the surveyors had “carried out videography of the halls in the mosque on Tuesday (November 19) and visited other parts of the mosque on Sunday”.

Local people had protested peacefully against the survey on Tuesday, too.

A large number of women and children were seen leaving the area after Sunday’s violence, which occurred around 8.30-9am.

“Every time someone commits a crime, the government punishes the entire Muslim community in the area,” a woman told local reporters without giving her name.

“Our only option is to leave the place for a few days, because we don’t want our children to suffer.”

An act of Parliament mandates status quo at all places of worship apart from Babri Masjid-Ramjanmabhoomi, but it has been challenged in the Supreme Court.

A local court-ordered survey in 2022 at the Gyanvapi Masjid in Varanasi, which stands beside the Kashi Vishwanath Temple, claimed to have found evidence of an old temple at the mosque site. The case is now in the apex court.

Allahabad High Court is dealing with a similar case involving the Shahi Idgah in Mathura, which shares a compound with the Krishna Janmasthan Temple.

Petitioners

“There are seven of us petitioners, including Parth Yadav, Rishiraj Giri, Rakesh Kumar, Madan Pal, Ved Pal and Deena Nath,” Jeetpal Singh Yadav, one of the petitioners, told local reporters. “Hari Shankar Jain is our counsel.”

Giri, a local sadhu, displayed what he said was an old map of the area showing a temple at the spot. “That’s why the court ordered a survey the day we filed the petition,” he said.

Kumar, the SP, said: “Those spreading rumours should stop. We have restored peace in the Jama Masjid area and are trying to identify those who perpetrated the violence. We have detained a few rioters.”

He said the mob had torched several private and police vehicles.

Deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya blamed the violence on “Samajwadi goons”.

Gopal Sharma, a local lawyer for the Hindu side, had told PTI on Friday that the petition cited Mughal-era texts Baburnama and Ain-i-Akbari to argue that a Harihar temple existed where the Jama Masjid now stands. Harihar is a dual representation of Vishnu and Shiva.

Detentions

Ten people, including two women, have been detained and a probe launched, an official told PTI.

“We are investigating where the shots were fired from, particularly in the Deepa Sarai area,” the official said.

Uttar Pradesh police chief Prashant Kumar told PTI that the situation was under control, with senior police and civil officials handling the situation “on the spot” and security beefed up in the area.

On Saturday, the Sambhal district administration had got 34 people to sign bonds of up to ₹10 lakh, fearing a breach of peace during Sunday’s survey.

Sub-divisional magistrate Vandana Mishra told PTI that among the 34 was Mamlukur Rahman Barq, father of Sambhal’s Samajwadi MP, Ziaur Rahman Barq.