LUCKNOW: The door of a mosque was set ablaze on Monday by unidentified persons in Uttar Pradesh’s Kasganj district, leading to brief tension in the area that was singed by violence and clashes on Republic Day. Police said the situation is calm.

Tension gripped the Sabzi Mandi area on Monday morning when unidentified persons set ablaze the door of the mosque in Ganjdundwara in an attempt to disrupt the communal harmony in the area, a police officer said.

The fire was doused by locals and a fire tender but the door had been gutted by then, he said. Residents from the area had gathered in large numbers on the streets near the Sabzi Mandi and raised slogans, downed shutters, demanding the guilty be immediately arrested.

Senior district and police officials led by District Magistrate RP Singh and Superintendent of Police Piyush Srivastava had to rush to the spot to pacify the angry residents.

District authorities had a hard time pacifying them and additional police force was sent to the area to ensure that the situation did not get out of control, an official informed IANS.

Senior police officers at the Director General of Police (DGP) office though refused to take calls.

Violence had erupted in the district on Jan.26, during the ‘Tiranga Yatra’ taken out by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) after which one person was killed and many injured.

Separately, Muslims in Agra on Monday tried to take out a “Tiranga Yatra” but were held back at the Shahid Smarak, where they presented a memorandum to a district official, listing a set of demands and grievances.

The Tiranga Yatra was in response to a similar yatra last week by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.

Over a 100 Muslims, comprising youth, senior community leaders, Ulemas and Maulvis, led by Shabana Khandelwal, gathered at the Shahid Smarak with the national tricolour. But senior police officials said due to Section 144 being in force, the procession could not be permitted.

Khandelwal told IANS: “Our Tiranga Yatra was non-political and through this we want to demonstrate our firm solidarity with the nation and our patriotism including our love for the national tricolour.

“For no rhyme or reason Muslims were being targeted and branded as being opposed to the national patriotic fervour. The Muslims have made tremendous sacrifices both during the Independence movement and after during the wars and in the national developmental process.”

In their memorandum addressed to the President of India, they demanded fair treatment, and safety to Muslims and their institutions.

“In the name of ‘Vande Matram’, many people were pointlessly harassed. This should stop. Also in the name of ‘Love Jihad’ and cow slaughter, many Muslims have suffered.” They demanded a judicial probe in the Kasganj incident and fair compensation to the family of Chandan Gupta, who was killed in sectarian violence in the Uttar Pradesh town last month.

Separately, the Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) of the Uttar Pradesh police arrested a terror suspect in Lucknow on Monday, officials said.

Briefing the media on the arrest made from the Lohia path, Inspector General, ATS, Aseem Arun said that the arrested suspect, Sheikh Ali Akbar provided arms and ammunition to terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir.

Akbar, who hails from Ghazipur district of eastern Uttar Pradesh, was in constant touch with his counterparts in J&K through social media and had paid local arms dealers Rs25,000 for some weapons that were later to be sent to the terror groups in the border state, he said.