Three men from Delhi were detained in Sambhal, India, for allegedly attempting to perform Hindu rituals, including a havan and puja, at the Shahi Jama Masjid. The incident occurred on Friday, with police citing concerns about public order and potential disruption to communal harmony. The mosque is a site of ongoing religious tensions, with four people having died in violence last year related to a court-ordered survey. The detainees claimed they were attempting to perform rituals at a nearby Vishnu Harihar temple.
The Allahabad high court on Friday directed the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to clean the premises of Jama Masjid in Sambhal but did not pass an order for whitewashing of the mosque.
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday offered prayers at the historic Jama Masjid and visited the Red Fort in Old Delhi area.
A Bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Vijender Jain, however, said that it would decide the fate of the existing unauthorised structure.
The Allahabad high court on March 12 directed the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to undertake and complete the whitewashing at the mosque within one week.
While there is no need for any panic, B Raman states that any casual approach to the firing outside the Jama Masjid in New Delhi would be unwise.
Police said prima facie, the two incidents were not related. "We are investigating the matter. We are checking whether it has any link," a senior police official said.
Visitors to shrines were being searched thoroughly.
Police have said the intention of the blasts was to cause panic.
The Sambhal administration in Uttar Pradesh has stated that no work should be carried out on the Shahi Jama Masjid without the approval of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). This decision comes after the mosque's management committee sought permission to redecorate the mosque ahead of Ramzan. The matter is currently pending in court, and the property belongs to the ASI. The administration has emphasized that no tampering with the mosque is allowed until the ASI grants permission.
Despite claims made by senior police officials of the Delhi police that they would be able to catch the culprits of Sunday's shooting incident near gate number 3 of Jama Masjid in which two foreign tourists were injured, sources in the intelligence agencies feel it would take sometime before a break through is achieved.
The firing incident in New Delhi and the explosion of a car should serve as a warning to security agencies, says Wilson John.
The e-mail was sent using a mobile phone. The sim card as well as the phone were purchased using a fake address and name, from Mumbai.
"I raised the issue of attack on tourist bus in which two tourists were badly injured. Chidambaram told me that while he does not rule out the possibility of a terror attack but it would be too premature to say anything about it," Advani told rediff.com after attending the function.
The server from which an e-mail was sent a few hours after Sunday's Jama Masjid firing incident has been traced to Norway, Home Minister P Chidambaram said.
Authorities have demolished a 128-year-old mosque in Assam's Dibrugarh to construct a drainage system for solving the waterlogging problem in the town, officials said on Thursday.
Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama on Sunday led a special prayer for world peace at the historic Jama Masjid in Delhi and said it is regrettable that Muslims are being targeted in the name of terrorism. The Dalai Lama, who was in Delhi to participate in an international Anti-Terrorism conference, was accompanied by several foreign dignitaries and people of different faiths.
Indian Mujahideen co-founder Yasin Bhatkal and his aide Asadullah Akhtar were chargesheeted by the Delhi police in a court on Thursday in connection with the September 2010 Jama Masjid terror attack case where a bomb fitted in a car had exploded.
Suspected Indian Mujahideen operative Fasih Mahmood, who was deported from Saudi Arabia last year, was on Saturday chargesheeted for terror acts in connection with the 2010 Jama Masjid attack.
The Committee of Management, Shahi Jama Masjid, moved the high court challenging the suit and the Sambhal court order which directed the survey through an advocate commissioner.
Zafar Ali, the president of the Shahi Jama Masjid committee in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh, was arrested on Sunday in connection with the violence that erupted in November 2022 over a court-ordered survey of the mosque. Ali's brother alleged that the arrest was intended to prevent him from submitting his testimony before a judicial commission investigating the violence. The mosque has been at the center of a controversy after a petition claimed it was the site of an ancient Hindu temple. The violence resulted in four deaths and several injuries.
Were the Chinnaswamy stadium blasts in Bengaluru and the Jama Masjid firing in Delhi in any way connected? It has been ascertained that the terror incidents are inter linked to the extent that it was the Indian Mujahideen which carried out the attack, reports Vicky Nanjappa.
Miffed at not being able to meet Jama Masjid's Shahi Imam Bukhari, a 32-year-old man allegedly threw a bottle of kerosene at the cleric on Sunday in an attempt to set him ablaze.
The day after two Taiwanese tourists were injured when unidentified gunmen sprayed bullets near Delhi's Jama Masjid, the police are trying to trace the connection of the Indian Mujahideen to the attack.The terror outfit has claimed responsibility for the attack in an email sent right after the incident shook the capital.Security agencies and the Intelligence Bureau say that the language used in the email is different from the earlier mails sent by the IM.
The Delhi police probing the firing outside the Jama Masjid in Delhi are yet to pin point the perpetrators of the blast. While they have managed to find the link between the firing and the pressure cooker blast, they are yet to ascertain as to who carried out the strike.
In a U-turn, the Delhi Police now says that it does not suspect the role of any organised terror group behind Sunday's shooting incident near the historic Jama Masjid and the explosion of a pressure cooker bomb inside a car in the same area in a span of two hours.
Tension has been brewing in Sambhal since November 19 when the court-ordered survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid was carried out following claims that a Harihar temple previously stood at the site.
The advisory features a ban on taking or sharing photos and videos of the sacrifice rituals on social media platforms.
Holi and Friday prayers passed peacefully in Sambhal district of Uttar Pradesh amid tight security, officials said.
'Only because of the absence of a dedication record in writing, how can such properties be treated as located on misappropriated government land?'
Foreigners wearing mini skirts and entering Jama Masjid prompted Indian Mujahideen co-founder Yasin Bhaktal and his aides to commit a terror strike at the historic mosque in September 2010, the Delhi police told a court.
Severing ties with the ruling Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh, Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid Maulana Syed Ahmed Bukhari has sent resignations of his supporters, including his member of Legislative Assembly son-in-law, from all positions in the state government.
The Uttar Pradesh government has informed the Supreme Court that the disputed "private well" near the Mughal-era Jama Masjid mosque in Sambhal was situated on public land. The state government said the petitioner failed to disclose there was a well within the boundary walls of the mosque known locally as "yagna koop". The committee, in a spot inspection, found that the well was situated outside the mosque boundary wall, the report said. The report said the state was committed to ensuring peace and harmony in the region and any restraint on the use of such public wells by the community at large may not help in achieving that goal.
Warning miscreants rpt miscreants against giving communal overtone to the issue of disputed structure near Jama Masjid, the Delhi high court on Monday permitted the Archaeological Survey of India to demolish illegal constructions in the area to ascertain whether remains of a Mughal-era structure existed.
A court in Budaun will decide on December 24 whether to proceed with a hearing in the Jama Masjid Shamsi versus Neelkanth temple case. The dispute arose in 2022 when a Hindu group claimed the temple existed at the mosque site and sought permission to worship. The Supreme Court recently restrained all courts from entertaining and passing any orders on lawsuits seeking surveys of religious places under the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991. The Muslim side argues that the lower court should not proceed with the hearing as it cannot pass any orders, while the Hindu side maintains the Supreme Court order does not stop the hearing. The court will now decide whether to continue the proceedings.
The Delhi high court on Friday issued a notice to the Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid for his failure to comply with its order for removal of encroachments within the vicinity of the hostoric mosque in Delhi.
Burhanuddin Rabbani, chairman of the High Peace Council and former President of Afghanistan who met Prime minister Manmohan Singh over lunch in New Delhi on Thursday and later had delegation level talks, has expressed desire to perform Friday prayers at the historic Jama Masjid.
The Allahabad high court on Wednesday stayed further proceedings before a civil court hearing the dispute over Jama Masjid in Uttar Pradesh's Sambhal.
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