‘Bottle bomb’ hurled at gate of Amritsar mosque, case lodged
AMRITSAR : Some unidentified persons allegedly hurled a “bottle bomb” at the main entrance of a mosque in the Chheharta area near Amritsar city on Tuesday morning.
No one was present in the shrine, Jama Masjid Deen Mohammad, at the time of the incident that took place around 6:30am. Its main door and a nearby wall were found blackened.
The police ruled out any communal angle to the incident even as a case under sections 446 (mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to destroy house, etc) and 295 (injuring or defiling place of worship to insult any religion) of the Indian Penal Code was registered.
The mosque management demanded strict action against those involved in the incident. “When I came to the mosque in the morning, I found a broken bottle and the blackened door.
There was no fire. We immediately informed the police. Those involved behind the incident should be sent behind the bars,” said Muhammad Maqbool, a member of the mosque committee.
The closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras had been uninstalled for the last few days as painting work was underway in the mosque, he added.
Mosque committee president Manik Ali said, “I got a call around 6.30am that some miscreants tried to put the mosque on fire. I along with other members of the community reached the police station and demanded action.”
ACP (west) Dev Dutt Sharma said, “Preliminary investigation suggests that a kerosene lamp may have fallen from someone’s hand or from a wheel cart driven by some street vendor. The visibility on Tuesday morning was poor due to dense fog and nothing was found from the CCTV cameras.”
“But our investigation is still on,” he added.