Uttar Pradesh: Security tightened at Shahjahanpur mosques for Friday prayers

SHAHJAHANPUR: Additional police force was deployed at city mosques for the Friday prayers, two days after a copy of the Quran was found burnt on the premises, police said. The prayers went off peacefully.
The situation in the city is normal and constant contact is being established with religious leaders. The administration deployed three magistrates in three police stations of the city for the Friday prayers. Officials are also constantly touring the city areas, Additional District Magistrate (Finance and Revenue) Ramsevak Dwivedi told PTI.
Soon after the desecration was reported, police arrested local resident Taj Mohammad.
Shahjahanpur is an example of Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb (composite culture) where there has never been any riot, Dwivedi said.
Superintendent of Police S. Anand said some people tried to disrupt peace on Wednesday after which a meeting with religious leaders was held and an appeal was made to maintain peace. The religious leaders have also given assurance in this regard, the SP said.
Following this, adequate police force was deployed in mosques falling in all the police station areas for the Friday prayers which passed off peacefully, Anand said.
Meanwhile, local Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Rajesh Awasthi and other activists handed over a memorandum to the SP complaining about a group of people blocking the road near Beri Chowki under Kotwali after the incident on Wednesday.
Awasthi alleged that after the incident, anti-national slogans were raised, arson was done and an attempt was made to instigate riot and demanded that such miscreants should be identified and action be taken against them under the Gangsters Act and the National Security Act (NSA).
A video of the accused has also gone viral in which he can be heard saying, "I roam about without any work so the mind went crazy. I told the family members to get me married but the family members did not help."
He said he was not responsible for the desecration. "I did not set any fire nor did I go there, a spirit came out of me and it set the fire".
On Wednesday night, a copy of the Quran was found burnt in a mosque in the Kotwali area of Shahjahanpur after which people gathered at the mosque in large numbers and staged a demonstration.
On the next day, the accused, Taj Mohammad, was identified from the CCTV footage and was arrested.