Tensions prevailed this week at Udai Pratap Degree College in Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi as several students protested on Tuesday after a large number of devotees offered prayers at a mosque located inside the campus, The Indian Express reported.
Seven students were also detained and booked by the police during the protests on charges of breaching the peace.
The college has been witnessing unrest surrounding the religious structure inside the campus ever since the violence that broke out in Sambhal on November 24 over a court-ordered survey of another mosque, according to the newspaper.
Following the violence in Sambhal, a notice issued in 2018 by the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board about the mosque inside Udai Pratap Degree College was widely shared on social media, The Indian Express quoted unidentified authorities from the institution as saying.
A waqf is a property dedicated to a religious, educational or charitable cause under Islamic law. In India, waqfs are governed under the Waqf Act. Each state has a waqf board led by a legal entity that is vested with the power to acquire, hold and transfer property.
The 2018 notice, which was addressed to the manager of the college, sought a response from the institution on a demand by a person named Waseem Ahmed. He sought the registration of the land where the mosque was situated as waqf property.
The college, however, clarified that there was no pending dispute with the waqf board regarding the land, The Indian Express reported.
After the 2018 notice was shared online, more than 600 persons visited the mosque on November 29 for prayers, the newspaper quoted unidentified protestors as saying.
The number of devotees on a typical Friday for prayers used to be 40 to 50, they added.
In response to this, several current and former students from the college gathered at the gate of the campus on Tuesday and recited the Hindu hymn Hanuman Chalisa, according to The Indian Express.
Vivekanand Singh, a former student, said that many were upset by the large number of devotees who came to the campus for prayers. “Since this is a college with a significant student population, outsiders holding prayers at the masjid should be stopped,” he said.
Police were deployed at the site in view of the protests. They prevented students from approaching the mosque. Subsequently, seven former and current students were detained. They were released on bail on the same day.
The principal of the college, Dharmendra Kumar Singh, told The Indian Express that he has asked the district administration and the police to ensure that only persons with a valid Aadhaar card are allowed to enter the campus for prayers at the mosque.
“We are unsure why this issue is being raised now as the masjid has existed here for a long time and was renovated twice, most recently in 2012,” the newspaper quoted Singh as saying. “According to revenue records, the entire land was registered in the name of Udai Pratap College.”
He also cited a letter from the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board that declared that there was no dispute pending before it regarding the college land.
On December 3, SM Yaseen, who is the joint secretary of the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee, which takes care of the Gyanvapi mosque, wrote to the waqf board about the confusion arising from the 2018 notice, The Indian Express reported.
He called the mosque inside the campus “a symbol of communal harmony on the campus” and requested clarity on the current status of the notice.
In a response on the same day, the waqf board said that the notice had been revoked by an order on January 18, 2021. “No further action is in progress in this regard,” it added.
“With the clarification from the UP Sunni Central Waqf Board, the matter should now be resolved,” Yaseen told the The Indian Express. “The protests arose due to a misunderstanding.”
Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner of Police Chandra Kant Meena said that personnel had been deployed at the site to prevent an escalation of tensions and that the situation was under control.
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