Aligarh: At least nine mosques in Uttar Pradesh’s Aligarh and Sambhal districts have been covered with tarpaulin sheets ahead of Holi to prevent them from being smeared with colours, police said on Sunday.
The step was taken after talks with religious leaders to maintain law and order situation, police officials said.
In Aligarh, at least two mosques have been covered. One of them is Halwaaiyan mosque in the Sabzi Mandi area, and the other is located at Delhi Gate, Circle Officer (City) Abhay Pandey told reporters.
Pandey said that a flag march was conducted in the sensitive areas with a message of peace and police pickets have been set up in the old city areas.
In Bareilly, all the mosques on the Ram Baraat route and the Laat Saheb procession path in Shahjahanpur have been covered with tarpaulin and plastic sheets to prevent them from being smeared with Holi colours, authorities informed.
Senior Superintendent of Police (Bareilly) Ghule Sushil Chandrabhan led a police march along the proposed route of the Ram Baraat which will be taken out from Narsingh Temple on Sunday.
In Shahjahanpur, a ‘Laat Saheb ki Baraat’ is taken out on Holi from the Phoolmati Devi Temple. It features a unique tradition, reportedly prevalent since the 18th century, in which revellers hurl footwear at the procession featuring a buffalo cart and a hapless man. Mosques located along the procession route remain covered with plastic sheets and the law and order machinery in Shahjahanpur is on high alert to avert any untoward incident.
In Sambhal, the district administration, in agreement with the Muslim community, has covered some mosques with tarpaulin sheets to avoid disputes.
Additional Superintendent of Police (North) Shrish Chandra told the news agency that like last year, six-seven mosques in Sambhal have also been covered with tarpaulin with mutual consent because splashing of colours often leads to disputes. with agency inputs