A mazar at a village in Gurugram was set on fire by some unidentified people in the early hours of Monday, police said.
According to a complaint filed by caretaker Ghasite Ram, a native of the Barabanki district of Uttar Pradesh, it was all normal at the shrine in the Khandsa village when he left for home in the Feroz Gandhi Colony at 8:30 pm Sunday.
“Around 01.30 am, I received a phone call from somebody living near the mazar that it has been set afire by some unknown people,” he said in a complaint filed at the Sector 37 police station.
He said the fire was brought under control with the help of people. “But when I went there I saw offerings kept inside the mazar were burnt down. What I have come to know is that a group of 5-6 young boys gathered there and set the mazar on fire,” he said in the FIR.
Ram said he has been working at the shrine for about seven years and has seen “people of all religions offering their respect there.” The incident has has hurt their sentiments and “can cause riots in society”, he said in his complaint. “Action should be taken against the perpetrators.” He told PTI on Monday morning, “This is a decades-old mazar of ‘peer baba’ and all villagers offer prayers here. It might be some outsiders who set the mazar on fire,” This comes even as section 144 was still in force in Gurugram due to the communal clashes that began in the neighbouring Nuh district spread to parts of the millennium city and its neighbouring areas last week.
The district administration lifted section 144 on Monday.
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The FIR in the mazar arson case has been registered against unknown persons under sections 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups), 188 (disobedience of an order duly promulgated by a public servant), 436 (mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to destroy house) of the IPC, police said.
A senior police officer said they are trying to identify the accused and arrest them.
Police also said an eatery (dhaba) near Rathiwas village was set on fire on Saturday night, and an FIR was registered at the Bilaspur police station in the night itself. Meanwhile, the Gurugram Police also said it arrested on Sunday night 15 people accused of violence in Sohna and they were sent to judicial custody by a court in the city.
