As per Liaqat Ali, that's when he stepped in to protect the women and got himself injured at the hands of Mumtaz. "The mullahs were attacking the women. When I intervened, they assaulted me saying I stand with Hindus so I must be beaten up," he said.

"I wouldn't side with the mullahs just because they belong to the same religion as mine. I'll stand for what is right. I will side with my neighbours," he said.

His wife Shabnam said she arrived at the spot soon and got assaulted as well. "They hit my 13-year-old daughter. When I protested, they hit me with stones," she said.

Shabnam accused the madrassa owners of trying to give the case a communal colour when it wasn't so, in order to encroach upon the land.

"My name is Shabnam and my family calls me Saroj. But they are trying to popularise my name as Saroj so it would appear that I am a Hindu and this is a religious issue. They want to silence us so they can keep on encroaching public land," she said.

Shabnam, who grew up in the colony, said that thirty years ago, there was a just a small mosque for a handful of Muslim families but slowly, the owners illegally expanded it to make a 40-room madrassa.

"They kept on bribing officials and claiming more and more land. When we were children, we had a wide road leading to the main road and a huge ground to play on. The mullahs built a wall and restricted our space. Now they have blocked the passage to make the entire ground within the walls their property," she said.

However, Shabnam and other residents said that the dispute is settled now that the new passage is ready and operational.

Madrassa’s version

On the other side, we met Mumtaz and his brother Izaz Ali, who both teach at and take care of the madrassa. "Kaku [Liaqat Ali] and Saroj [Shabnam] started it all. They pelted stones at us," said Mumtaz.