After two incidents of desecration of religious places in Jammu now objections have been raised over the use of loud speaker on a temple premises by the members of the majority community during the holy month of Ramzan along the line of Control in Jhulas village falling under Haveli tehsil of Poonch.
The incident came to light shortly after a group of youth led by a woman SPO (Special Police Officer), after breaking their day long fast, gathered outside the temple premises and demanded removal of loud speakers fitted atop temple premises on late Sunday evening.
A group of devotees along with the local priest identified as Deepak Sharma were offering evening prayers inside the temple at the time of incident.
The youth, using filthy language also abused the temple priest and threatened him to vandalise the idols kept inside the temple.
They alleged the temple priest was disturbing them by using a loud speaker atop the temple complex during prayers.
Before situation could have taken an ugly turn a police officer present in the nearby police post rushed to the spot to defuse the tension in the area.
“Restive youth from the majority community forcibly barged inside the temple premises and thrashed one of the devotees present there”. "He was dragged out of the temple premises by police officer identified as Chetan Sharma,” eyewitnesses reports claimed.
“As both the groups assembled outside the police post to register their protest, senior police officer DySP Mujeeb-Ur-Rehman along with SHO Jatidner Raina rushed to the spot from Poonch”. Ironically, one of the officers was also manhandled by the youth, eyewitnesses reports claimed. After lot of persuasion by the police officers both the groups were dispersed after midnight.
On ground zero, tension prevailed in the area even on Monday as both the sides stuck to their stand.
Members of the temple committee and local devotees were demanding registration of FIR against those who prevented them from discharging their religious duties/prayers and on the other hand members of the majority community in J&K remained adamant on preventing registration of FIR against the group of youngsters involved in the case. The members of the majority community also blocked traffic on the road during the day and threatened against taking action against the youth.
The meeting called by the local police officer also failed to broker a peace deal as both the sides staged demonstration in support of their demands. In another meeting convened by the district development commissioner in Poonch prominent citizens were requested to maintain peace and harmony in the area and to respect the religious sentiments of each community. The police after accepting the written complaint from members of the temple committee organised another meeting where elder members of the majority community apologised on behalf of the youth and appealed for restoring communal harmony in the area.
Meanwhile, police is also investigating the role of a local teacher posted in the Govt Middle School for inciting passions and dividing the society on communal lines in the village located close to the line of control for his ulterior motives.