Protests over sealing of mosque in Tirupur bring traffic to standstill

Tirupur: Traffic was thrown out of gear across the district on Thursday after members of the Muslim community blocked roads against an attempt by revenue department officials to seal a mosque on Mahalakshmi Nagar at 15 Velampalayam.
The mosque was functioning for nearly a decade without any permission, a corporation official said. “The owner of the building, situated on a 1,600 sqft land on Mahalakshmi Nagar, had obtained permission to run a banian firm in 2011. Later, a group of Muslims bought it and turned it into a mosque,” he said.
The resident welfare associations filed a petition against the illegal building before the Madras high court, which directed the revenue department to seal it in 2016. “When the department failed to do it, the association filed a petition for contempt of court and the court directed the department to seal it by June 30,” the official said.
On Thursday morning, when revenue department officials, corporation officials and a police team reached the building and attempted to seal it, as many as 300 people picketed the road near the Tirupur corporation office. As traffic came to a standstill for hours, the civic body was forced to postpone the council meeting. Member of the community blocked roads across the district.
A large posse of policemen were deployed to prevent any untoward incidents. City police commissioner A G Babu and superintendent of police G Shashank Sai held talks with the protesters.
Meanwhile, the protesters filed a petition before the Madras high court, which issued an interim order to sort it out the issue by July 4.
Traffic was restored after 4pm. A group of Hindu Munnani cadres staged a road roko against police for not taking any action against the protesters.