Communal tensions prevail in Rohanya village in Pilibhit, Uttar Pradesh, after a Muslim mob ransacked a temple to oppose loudspeakers. The mob broke the loudspeaker and took away the idols of the temple along with them. As per reports, five men, Mehboob, Monis, Israel, Azaad and Alanoor have been arrested and a case has been registered for trying to create enmity between religious groups.

At a temple situated on the outskirts of Rohanya temple, people would gather and pray and play devotional songs on the loudspeaker. The village has both, Hindu and Muslim population. At around 9 pm on Tuesday night, a mob reached the temple and asked them to stop using the loudspeaker. They reportedly said that since the next day (yesterday) was Eid, the temple should stop playing devotional songs on the loudspeakers as they want to do namaz. The people in the temple protested saying that the namaz is carried out inside the village.

Agitated, the mob cut off the wire of the loudspeaker and even removed the idols and threw them away. When the priest protested, the mob beat him up as well. After the mob left, the priest and others called up the police which arrived to ensure the communal tension does not escalate. The police even got the idols back inside the temple.

The matter soon escalated and the police had to step in to control the communal tension.

Pilibhit Police had confirmed that in Bilaspur station, a case has been registered against five accused under section 147 (rioting), 295 (injuring or defiling place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion) of the Indian Penal Code.