Since the communal violence last week, Sharma has sent his family to stay somewhere else. The temple’s precinct and idols are pristine, and Sharma shows up every morning and evening to perform prayers. Outside, the gates have black residue from mustard oil lamps.

Two Central Reserve Police Force personnel sit on the building's first floor. A few others are posted outside the building next door, which is completely gutted.

Fact-check

To fact-check the claims of OpIndia’s report, we spoke to Sharma and a few locals.

OpIndia Claim 1: A Muslim mob climbed the terrace of the Shiv temple.

Fact

Sharma told Newslaundry that no one climbed the terrace of the temple building. Remember, Sharma and his family live on this terrace.

“People definitely climbed the roofs of nearby Hindu homes and were stone-pelting. The stones continued to fall for several hours on the terrace, where I live,” he told Newslaundry. “We had shut ourselves in for several hours. Petrol bombs also fell on the roof, due to which clothes and chairs kept outside were burnt. But no one came to the roof of the temple.”

Were miscreants targeting his terrace because it’s part of the temple building?

“I don't think it was done to attack the temple,” Sharma replied. “Stones were definitely thrown on our roof from behind, but they did not do it to attack the temple.”

Who threw the stones on his terrace? OpIndia claimed it was a Muslim mob. Sharma said he was locked inside his room so he does not know.

A 60 year-old local resident, who wished to stay anonymous, said the Muslims couldn’t even get to the temple because the Hindus were pelting at them from the opposite rooftops.

“The temple was not targeted as such, nor did we let it happen,” he said.

Ram Kumar, whose house is just opposite the temple, told Newslaundry that houses behind the temple belong to Muslims who used ladders to climb onto the terraces of Hindu homes beside the temple.

“They climbed over the terraces of two homes here, but not on the terrace of the temple,” he said. When asked if the temple was targeted, he said no. “The stones were coming from behind; they fell everywhere and not just on the temple.”

On the opposite side, terraces had Hindus who fought stones with stones. (This little detail was skipped in most ground reports, including Swarajya. More on this later.) It’s possible that stones on the temple terrace came from the Hindu side, since they were lobbing stones at Muslims positioned beside the temple.