Nuh Violence: Mahapanchayat held amid Sec.144, calls for release of men arrested for murder

Just days after communal violence broke out in Nuh, a Mahapanchayat was organised in Tigra village in Gurugram on Sunday, August 6, in violation of prohibitory orders in Gurugram’s Sector 57, and called for the release of the four men arrested for the killing of an imam and social and economic boycott of Muslims.

It was in Gurugram’s Sector 57 where Naib Imam Mohammed Saad, 26, was killed on August 1 during an attack on the Anjuman mosque by a mob on Tuesday. Tigra village, where the mahapanchayat was held, is close to mosque in Sector 57 which was one of two mosques targeted during the clashes.

Clashes erupted during the Brij Mandal Jalabhishek Yatra, also known as the Shobha Yatra, near Khedia Mor in the Muslim-dominated Nuh district. It resulted in the death of five people, including two homeguards, and injured at least 80. It was jointly organised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal, and Matrishakti Durgavahini.

At the mahapanchayat, organised under the chairmanship of Sarpanch Attar Singh of Mohammadpur village, the villagers insisted that the four people who have been arrested were innocent. The villagers have given a seven-day ultimatum to the police to release those who have been arrested. They also demanded the removal or demolition of the Anjuman mosque in Sector 57 as according to them the area is dominated by Hindus. Another of the panchayat's demands was to ban the entry of police into the village and preventing them from raiding homes.

A 101-member committee has been formed to track the matter. The meeting was adjourned with the ultimatum if the arrested men are not released, a “big decision” would be taken. It was not immediately clear what the villagers would decide. However, Sube Singh Bohra, a former sarpanch of Wazirabad village, said all of them would court arrest en masse if the arrested youths, who he claimed were innocent, were not released.

The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram's outgoing councillor Mahesh Dayma said that the committee will submit a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner on Monday demanding the release of the four youths arrested from the village in the mosque murder case and to also conduct an impartial inquiry into the matter. A memorandum would be given to all MLAs and ministers too with the same set of demands, he said.

More than 500 people from nearby villages attended the meeting even though Section 144 was imposed in the district. Current and former MLAs from Sohna, Sanjay Singh and Tejpal Tanwar, both from BJP, and several councillors and sarpanchas attended the meeting.

The panchayat was held amid the deployment of heavy security in Tigra and nearby villages. Several companies of para-military forces, along with police, patrolled the areas from 9 am to 4 pm.