NEW DELHI, Sept 26: More than 100 Muslim families have fled from a Rajasthan district after right wing Hindus allegedly demolished a mosque, it was reported on Friday.
Muslims in Jhalawar district accused activists of the Bajrang Dal of attacking them and demolishing their mosque, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported.
More than 30 Hindu activists have been arrested, police said, adding that the mastermind belonged to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological parent of Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s Bharatiya Janata Party.
Muslim scholar Hafiz Safwan Alam said members of the Bajrang Dal “put a sword on my neck and forced me to take off my cap... I later heard a blast from the mosque”.
Others alleged that Hindu activists looted and burned houses belonging to Muslims, while the police did nothing. Many Muslims later packed their belongings and fled to neighbouring Madhya Pradesh state.
The administration is trying to make them return. Muslims constitute about 20 per cent of the population in the district.—dpa
