Tension escalated in Haryana’s Mewat area on Monday when stones were pelted on the Brij Mandal Jalabhishek religious Mewat Yatra. According to accounts, persons from the minority community attacked one of the cars in the religious parade.

Vehicles were torched and stones were pelted following clashes between two groups in Mewat, a Muslim-majority area of Haryana, during a Vishwa Hindu Parishad procession.

Tension escalated in Haryana’s Mewat area on Monday when stones were pelted on the Brij Mandal Jalabhishek religious Mewat Yatra. According to accounts, persons from the minority community attacked one of the cars in the religious parade. As both sides participated in stone pelting, the police intervened, firing tear gas to disperse the crowd and appealing for additional force from other areas.

The situation created an anxious atmosphere in the neighbourhood, resulting in the banning of internet service and imposition of Section 144. The Deputy Commissioner of Nuh has organized a meeting with both the parties on Monday night at 8:30 pm. to handle the problem.

“To prevent the spread of misinformation and rumors through various social media platforms, and to promote and organize mobs of agitators, who may indulge in arson or vandalism as well as other activities causing serious loss of life and may cause damage to public and private property. Due to the violent activities, I, the Home Secretary, Haryana, order suspension of mobile internet services in the jurisdiction of District Nuh in the State of Haryana.”

According to the police, a gang of youths stopped the Brij Mandal Jalabhishek Yatra at Khedla Mor in Nuh and started pelting stones at the procession. According to an official, “one or two cars” present in the parade were set on fire during the incident. According to reports, the yatra participants retaliated by pelting stones at youths who obstructed their path.

Notably, according to a special investigation published by The Pamphlet, the violence witnessed at the VHP protest in Nuh on Monday, July 31, was pre-planned. As per the report, the location of the rally was live-tweeted while the miscreants set out to disrupt communal peace and incite violence.

The yatra, which was earlier inaugurated by BJP district president Gargi Kakkar at Civil Lines in Gurugram, was accompanied by a police contingent. Some people suffered injuries during the procession, according to a police statement, but the exact number was not immediately available. Nuh SHO Hukam Singh assured that the situation in the area has stabilized after the stone pelting incident that took place about 2 km away from the temple. In response to the attack, the workers of Vishwa Hindu Parishad also retaliated by pelting stones at the attackers.

Why is Mewat often called ‘Mini Pakistan’?

Significantly, Mewat of Haryana has been in news for the last few years for the increase in terrorist activities, cow smuggling and forced conversions. In the wake of the coronavirus crisis in 2020, Haryana’s Mewat came into limelight after a probe report by a 4-member team headed by former judge Pawan Kumar stated that Mewat is slowly turning into a graveyard for Hindus, especially Dalits .

A 2013 report by the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti states that these incidents in Mewat are not a recent phenomenon and have their roots in the rapid spread of Islamism in the region. Rather, this attitude of the Muslim majority public has been going on for a long time, due to which many activists were forced to call it “mini-Pakistan”. The report states that just as Hindus are oppressed in Pakistan and their basic rights are taken away, similarly Dalits and Hindus in Mewat are subjugated by the Muslim majority and atrocities are committed against them.

The ten-year-old report of the committee mentions that the people of Tablighi Jamaat in Mewat inspired members of the local Muslim community for love jihad, jihad and forcible conversion. Further, the report cited an incident where a person named Veer Singh, while giving a statement on his father-in-law’s conversion to Islam, said that his father-in-law had been converted to Islam some time back and that he was later 4 Was sent out for months. , However, when he returned, he once again started practicing Hinduism, which led to death threats.