How are shrines and mosques growing in the lap of the Himalayas.

It was the year 2008, there was a tailor’s shop in Sanjoli area of ​​Shimla. The tailor was a Muslim. Some people started offering namaz on the platform of the shop. After this a mosque was built here. And later one floor after another was built up. Now it has become so high that its echo is heard from the police stations to the assembly.

On August 30, the Sanjoli mosque dispute in Malyana village of Shimla, Himachal Pradesh started with a fight. A shopkeeper in Malyana area was beaten up by a total of six people, in which the local shopkeeper Yashpal Singh was injured. According to local media, a Muslim youth attacked Yashpal’s head with a rod, causing a deep wound on his head. After committing the crime, the accused hid in the mosque. The matter escalated in no time. On the other hand, the police took six accused in the assault case, including Gulnawaz, Sariq, Saif Ali and two minors, into custody. Later, the minors were handed over to their families, but a lot has happened in Shimla after this incident, and discussions have also increased on how mosques are increasing one after the other in Devbhoomi Himachal, shrines are growing like grass and madrasas are being opened.

In fact, on September 2, a crowd of local people reached Sanjauli, an area in Shimla, in protest against the attack on Yashpal. People gathered at Sanjauli Chowk at 1 pm. From there, they took out a procession and moved towards the mosque. After reaching the mosque, the crowd started raising slogans against a particular community. Hanuman Chalisa was recited and bhajans were sung.

But this was not all. The crowd called the mosque an illegal construction and demanded its demolition as soon as possible. Along with this, the crowd closed the shops and carts of Muslims on the road. The dispute that started from here reached the Himachal Pradesh Assembly. Although there is a Congress government in Himachal, but the Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister in the state government, Aniruddh Singh, questioned his own government on the construction of the mosque in the assembly. That is, Aniruddh Singh raised questions in the assembly on the same mosque in front of which the crowd had protested on 2 September. Meanwhile, Congress MLA Harish Janartha opposed the comments of the minister in his own government and said that the mosque is on the land of the Waqf Board. Now understand the game, that is, the tailor must have been given money, he must have quietly donated his shop to the Waqf and the Waqf must have built a mosque there because Congress MLA Harish Janartha is saying that the mosque was built in 1960 and the local people are saying that it was built after 2010, whereas if you see the structure of the mosque, anyone can tell that this structure is new. Meanwhile, Minister Aniruddh Singh also participated in the protest held outside the mosque in Sanjauli on 5 September and said that only 190 Muslims are registered, whereas 1900 people are living here. “Everything should be investigated.”

However, the mosque was first given a notice in 2010. The notice said that if permission was given to build only one floor, then why was the second one built? But the notice had no effect. The third floor was also built, the fourth floor was also built and five floors were completed.

That is, notices of illegal construction kept coming, but the building kept getting built. Meanwhile, since the case started, 44 hearings have been held in the court. However, no action has been taken on the illegal construction so far. While it is being told that according to the existing documents, the ownership of the land is with the Himachal government since 1967, but the Waqf Board is in possession of it. Now the Waqf Board has been made a party in the court case. At the same time, a statement has also come from former Chief Minister Jairam Thakur regarding the mosque. He said that the illegal construction of the mosque is unfortunate, strict action should be taken on it immediately.

In this case, it is being told that from Kashmir to Himachal or Uttarakhand, now preparations are going on to occupy the Himalayas. Because the original source of Sanatan Dharma comes from the Himalayas. How is all this going on, in fact, in the census report released by the Central Government on the basis of religion, the population of Muslims in Himachal has increased by about 20.2 percent between the years 2001 and 2011. In 2001, the population of Muslims in Himachal was 1 lakh 19 thousand, which has now increased to 1 lakh 49 thousand. Secondly, while it is difficult for outsiders to buy land in Himachal Pradesh due to land laws, the game of Muslim people encroaching and settling on roadsides, forest and railway lands has been going on for the last 15 years. Somewhere Muslim fundamentalists are gaining foothold by building illegal shrines, while somewhere local Muslims are buying land and engaged in illegal construction of mosques. Before the Corona period, the Himachal government had said in its official figures that there were 393 mosques and 35 madrasas in the state, but after this, Hindu Jagran Manch itself conducted a survey in the state of Himachal and has given this information that at present 520 mosques exist in the state, the highest of which are in Sirmaur district, whose number was said to be 130.

In this, 60 mosques have been built in Nalagarh, Baddi area. There were some areas like Kullu, where there was never a single mosque, but mosques have been built there and there are 10 mosques in the district. According to the government, there are 30 mosques in Shimla district, while the organization claims that there are 48 mosques and 6 madrasas here. Hindu Jagran has registered a survey report of 52 mosques and one madrasa in Una district bordering Punjab. In Chamba district bordering Punjab and Kashmir, the number of mosques is claimed to be 87 and there are 9 madrasas. The organization has also claimed that there are 15 mosques in Hamirpur, 40 in Kangra, 13 in Solan, 34 in Bilaspur, 31 in Mandi. In this way, there are a total of 520 mosques in Himachal and there are 444 maulvis in them. In the remaining mosques, people of Jamaat take care of the arrangements. Hindu Jagran Manch says that except Mandi district, most of the maulvis are non-Himachali and they have been promoting fundamentalism by going to madrasas. Even the local Hindus are forced to listen to their extremist religious views and propaganda through loudspeakers.

According to mythological beliefs, Himachal is considered the land of gods and goddesses. The way the Muslim population is gradually spreading here, it seems that this is happening under a well-planned conspiracy. Deobandis are expanding mosques here and Barelvis are engaged in building illegal tombs by occupying government lands. Now, with the latest illegal mosque dispute going on in Shimla, these figures have started coming out once again. It is also being said that due to this illegal mosque dispute, the government has also been divided into two camps.

BY-Rajeev Choudhary