By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
Mumbai: A verbal conflict between some drunken Dalit youths and Muslims took an ugly turn when they later resorted stone pelting on each other and some of the stones fell in the nearby Rabbani Masjid in BDD Chawl in Sewri area of Mumbai. The situation returned to normal after police intervention. The policemen are still patrolling the area.
Maulana Badruddin Qasmi, who resides in Chawl No. 14, told that in the beginning the dispute between the drunken Dalits and Muslim youths was settled by some elders of the locality but later on Sunday midnight some Dalits started throwing soda bottles and stones at Muslims’ houses in Chawl No. 14. The Rabbani Masjid located near Sewri railway station too had to face immense stoning.
The locals claim had the police reached in time the situation would not have been so tense. However, the police after its arrival arrested 12 persons including five Muslim youths- Ismail, Nisar, Kamil, Nazim and Shabbir- for instigating riots but later they were released on Rs 8.000 bond for each.
The locals reportedly claim that the bond amount of Dalits has been paid from a local political leader, while the Muslims had to pay their bond from their own.
In Maharashtra, especially in Mumbai and its suburbs, Gatari festival at the end of Upwas (fast) of Sharawan month, is celebrated wherein special arrangements are made for drink parties.
The relations between Muslims and Dalits over there are not good. According to Inquilab daily there had been dispute over a vacant land where Muslims would offer Juma prayer in case Rabbani Masjid was overcrowded. But later Dalits stopped them from doing so. The Dalits too had to face the resistance of same nature from Muslims when they were trying to build another temple besides the existing two.