Hubballi: Locals allege police high-handedness triggered stone pelting
Muslims didn’t gather at Hubballi mosque for Friday prayers, say locals
Hubballi: The stone-pelting incident at Hubballi that the police blamed on Muslims who gathered for the Friday prayers in defiance of the lockdown was actually triggered by the police themselves, locals have claimed.
Overzealous policemen entered the mosque by wearing shoes and assaulted the staff, sparking off tension in the predominantly Muslim area of Aralikatti Oni, off Mantoor Road, according to several residents.
Over a dozen people, including some women, have been arrested over the incident that the media quickly blamed on lockdown-defying Muslims.
Speaking to Vartha Bharati, several residents said the incident was incorrectly portrayed as a result of the police stopping Muslims from offering Jumu’ah prayers at Masjid-e-Hazrat Bilal.
Currently only Muazzin (One who gives call to prayers and stays inside or nearby the mosque) and Imam (One who leads the prayers at mosque) are allowed to offer prayers at mosque and congregational prayers are suspended due to country-wide lockdown due to Coronavirus spread.
Aslam, the muazzin of the mosque, recounted how it all started: “I was alone in the masjid and giving azaan (the call to prayer, as giving Azaan is allowed and only congregational prayers are banned). Some policemen just barged into the mosque wearing shoes and started beating me up”.
The police then took Aslam to the Town Police Station, along with the mosque’s chairman (mutavalli) Dawal Nadaf and a local resident named Basha, who were both standing outside the mosque.
Shaista, an eyewitness, confirmed that the police beat up Aslam, Nadaf and Basha before her very own eyes and took them all to the police station.
“I and my sister pleaded the police to spare them. But the police were so brazen that they dragged my sister by her hair and took her away,” Shaista said.
Local Congress leader Altaf Halwoor, who said he also witnessed the incident, said the police later warned the three men and dropped them back at about 150 metres from the masjid. By then, an angry mob, including several women, had gathered there. A woman then started abusing the police. A police constable retaliated by brandishing his lathi, Halwoor said.
“Women and some young men started to pelt stones at the police as a retaliation for their atrocities” Halwoor said, adding that many local residents, including women, and police personnel sustained injuries.
Scared of police department and their atrocities, many residents have locked their houses and moved elsewhere.
Police, have, however, denied the allegation that they beat up anyone at the mosque.
Hubballi Town police inspector M S Patil claimed that when the muazzin was giving the azaan, people started gathering there, violating the lockdown.
“When our officers asked them not to gather there and offer prayers at home, they abused them and started throwing stones,” Patil told Vartha Bharati.
The inspector said that a total of 13 people have been arrested so far over the incident under IPC sections 324, 353, 504, and 332.
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Another North Goa nightclub sealed; Kejriwal says corruption led to fire tragedy
Panaji (PTI): As part of a crackdown against tourist establishments violating laws and safety norms in the aftermath of the Arpora fire tragedy, Goa authorities on Saturday sealed a renowned club at Vagator and revoked the fire department NOC of another club.
Cafe CO2 Goa, located on a cliff overlooking the Arabian Sea at Vagator beach in North Goa, was sealed. The move came two days after Goya Club, also in Vagator, was shut down for alleged violations of rules.
Elsewhere, campaigning for local body polls, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal said the fire incident at Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub at Arpora, which claimed 25 lives on December 6, happened because the BJP government in the state was corrupt.
An inspection of Cafe CO2 Goa by a state government-appointed team revealed that the establishment, with a seating capacity of 250, did not possess a no-objection certificate (NOC) of the Fire and Emergency Services Department. The club, which sits atop Ozrant Cliff, also did not have structural stability, the team found.
The Fire and Emergency Services on Saturday also revoked the NOC issued to Diaz Pool Club and Bar at Anjuna as the fire extinguishers installed in the establishment were found to be inadequate, said divisional fire officer Shripad Gawas.
A notice was issued to Nitin Wadhwa, the partner of the club, he said in the order.
Campaigning at Chimbel village near Panaji in support of his party's Zilla Panchayat election candidate, Aam Aadmi Party leader Kejriwal said the nightclub fire at Arpora happened because of the "corruption of the Pramod Sawant-led state government."
"Why this fire incident happened? I read in the newspapers that the nightclub had no occupancy certificate, no building licence, no excise licence, no construction licence or trade licence. The entire club was illegal but still it was going on," he said.
"How could it go on? Couldn't Pramod Sawant or anyone else see it? I was told that hafta (bribe) was being paid," the former Delhi chief minister said.
A person can not work without bribing officials in the coastal state, Kejriwal said, alleging that officers, MLAs and even ministers are accepting bribes.
