On Tuesday, July 4, at around 11am, Sayyad Yousufuddin, a resident of Telangana’s Gajwel town, learned that members of local Hindu groups were gathering outside Tanjamul Masjid. The situation was tense. The mob, numbering around 300, was formed by people who were part of a protest rally taken out in response to the alleged desecration of a Shivaji statue by a Muslim man a day earlier.
It was for the first time in life that Yousufuddin was experiencing a Hindutva mob’s ire in his hometown of Gajwel, part of the Gajwel Assembly constituency, represented by K Chandrasekhar Rao, the current Chief Minister of Telangana. Yousufuddin, who was inside the mosque, said he was fearful of what would happen next.
“There were only four of us inside the premises of the mosque including me, the mosque committee’s general secretary when the mob arrived,” recalled 48-year-old Yousufuddin, the president of the Tanjamul Masjid committee, while speaking to TNM. The mob stayed for 45 minutes, allegedly shouting Islamophobic slogans and pelting stones. They dispersed after the police arrived and shifted their protest to the Shivaji statue. Yousufuddin said police responded diligently to their call for help.
Following the July 3 incident, members of the Bhagat Youth Association registered a complaint at the Gajwel police station. The group took affront to the alleged desecration of the base of a statue of 17th century Maratha king Chhatrapati Shivaji by Mohammad Imran, a Muslim resident of Sangapur village. A case was registered and Mohammed Imran was arrested soon after.
Several shops across the town were shut the following day, as Hindu right-wing organisations including the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) issued a bandh call and took out a public rally.
The mosque, which is half-a-kilometer away from the Shivaji statue, was pelted with stones, alleged Yousufuddin. The flags within the compound of the mosque were also damaged, he said.
“The stone pelting was done by around 25-30 of the 300 people who were part of the rally and a stone also hit my leg, injuring me,” alleged Yousufuddin, who said they have a video of the incident. Trash was thrown at the mosque and Islamophobic insults were hurled at him in Telugu. Some members of the mob remarked that “If they (Muslims) wanted to stay in Hindustan, they had to be Hindus.”
Mohammed Imran, who allegedly perpetrated the act of desecration, was dragged to the police station by members of Bhagat Youth Association, a group involved in establishing Shivaji statues.
Yousufuddin said what Imran did was offensive and distasteful but alleged that the ruckus they created outside the mosque was pre-planned by right wing organisations including RSS, Bajrang Dal and other local supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Siddipet Commissioner of Police N Shwetha told TNM that stones were pelted outside Muslim-owned establishments near the Masjid but no one was injured.
Two persons, Karunakar Goud (25), a resident of Burgupalli village and Gachchubai Mahesh Goud (33) from Gajwel town have been arrested based on a complaint by Yousufuddin. Gajwel Municipal Corporation chairman and BRS member C Raja Mouli Nethi said Karunakar is employed as a sanitation worker with the Corporation.
Raghunandan Rao, a BJP MLA from Dubbak constituency was taken into preventive custody by the police on July 5 at Hakeempet while he was on his way to Gajwel following the incident at the mosque.