Jammu, June 20: Tension gripped a village in Jammu region's Poonch district on Monday as a Muslim gathering tried to prevent use of loudspeakers by Hindu community.
Members of the majority community reportedly objected to the use of loudspeakers in a Hindu temple in Jhulas village.
Police said youth led by a local woman tried to intervene physically to prevent the use of the loudspeaker by temple management, but their entry was resisted after which the members of the two communities started sloganeering against each other in the village.
Attempts are ongoing to defuse the tension.
What Happened
A village called Jhulas is situated next to line of control in Poonch. This episode happened around the time of Aarti (evening prayer) being performed by the Mahalaxmi temple priest last evening along with 5-6 other people also present for the aarti.
A few members of the majority community led by a woman entered the temple premises asking to stop using the loudspeaker.
This further led to argument between members of the two communities and attempts to damage temple property were made as well. The members of the majority community threw some property outside the temple according to sources.
As the heated arguments got louder, more members of both communities reached the spot and instead of trying to diffuse the situation, members of both communities started shouting slogans.
The administration rushed to the spot to bring the situation under control. Those present at the temple demanded that the culprits who caused damage to the temple property should be thrown behind the bars. On the other hand, members from the majority community threatened of dire consequences
To bring the situation under control, police gave assurance at 12:30 am to bring the culprits to task.
It is pertinent to mention that Poonch had seen similar instances of disruption of peace and communal harmony last year as well during the period of Ramzan.
Meanwhile, the SSP Poonch, JS Johar, affirmed that the incident was made up and the rumor had been passing around spreading throughout the Jammu division when there was no basis to it.
Agencies
