By Twocircles.net Staff Reporter,
Kolkata: As Muslims are in the country are gearing up to celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr, a 150 year old mosque is Kolkata is under threat from the suporters of the radical Hindu organization RSS.
Hindutva activists broke the boundary of the mosque few days ago, that led to a clash between two communities. To disperse the crowd the police had to retort to lathi charge and fired tear gas on August 4.
As the Eid is slated to be clebrated on Friday, the local adminstration is not taking any risk and has deployed police force outside the mosque.
As communal tension is flaring up in the city, that has relatively been clam for decades during the Left rule, local Muslims alleged that a youth arrested from the community has not yet been released, while those youths from other community has already been released.
The mosque under attack is over 150 years old under the Zillur Rahman Waqf Estate (EC no. 3179) situated at Doctors Lane under the Taltala Police Station in Central Kolkata.
Local social activist Asfaque Ahmed told TCN that with contributions from the community they were planning to have renovations, and put marbles on the floor. However, local Hindutva groups did not allow the renovation work.
According to sources, some local residents from other community had requested the Imam of the msque to temporarily keep the Durag idol at the fencing rock of the mosque, due to unaviablity of adequate space. The Imam, in order to maintain communal harmony, had ceded to the request.
However, as they need to start the renvation work in the moosque, they urged them to remove the Idol, that led to tension. Local Hindu groups are now claiming that the place was not in use, and since the locality is srrounded by Hindu residents, they had bee using the place for their own purpose.
The matter has reached the highest authority in the state.
West Bengal Masjid Mangal Samity, the Doctor Lane’s Mosque was established in 1834 and it was registered under the West Bengal State Waqf Board. After partition and due to communal riots most of the houses of Doctors lane were abondoned by Muslims, and hence regular namaz had also stopped.
In the 1978 renowned doctor of that area and Chairman of the West Bengal Masjid Mangal Samity Dr Shfi Layek took the initiative to restore the mosque. After initial renovation work, five times prayer had since continued without any intruption and an Imam was also recruited on behalf of the Zilllur Rahman Waqf Estate.
According to reports local MP Sudip Banerjee called a meeting of the elders of both the communities and appealed them to maintain peace. Meanwhile, Muslims groups have demanded deployment of more police force in the area for the protection of the mosque.