MYSURU: Tension prevailed for some time in fort town Srirangapatna when hundreds of VHP and Bajrang Dal activists from across the Mandya district congregated to offer puja at Mula Anjaneyaswamy temple claiming to be in the west gate of Jamia Masjid.
However, the Hindu activists were stopped from heading towards Jamia Masjid following the imposition of prohibitory orders by Deputy Commissioner Ashwathi.
The cops had beefed up security by barricading all the roads leading to the mosque under the Archeological Survey of India (ASI), the protesting activists claimed that two of their workers have successfully chanted Hanuman Chalisa at the Anajenyaswamy temple inside Jamia Masjid.
In response to 'Srirangapatana Chalo' the Bajrang dal activists attempted to block the roads demanding that they be allowed to proceed towards Jamia Masjid enabling them to offer puja. However, the Muslim clerics conducted the classes at the madrasa as usual, under the police cover, on Saturday.
The activists raised slogans and entered into a wordy duel with the cops on duty as they moved into Bannimantap near Kirangur ceasing the traffic on Bengaluru- Mysuru highway and Mysuru- Pandavapura highway as Mandya SP Yatish warned that they would be arrested if anyone violates the prohibitory orders and enters the town.
The Hindu activists raised slogans against the district administration and the cops and accused the government has allowed the functioning of the madrasa other than cooking food inside the temple.
VHP Mandya district Secretary Sunil Kumar alleged that the inmates of the madrasa and others have disfigured the pictures carved on the stone structures in an attempt to destroy the fact that it was a Hanuman temple. They demanded the district administration conduct videography of the Hanuman temple and submit a detailed report following the petition submitted by the Hindu organizations within 15 days.
Bajrang Dal activist Balaji questioned the ASI authority's failure to check and stop destroying the remains of the temple inside the Jamia masjid for forty-two years. He criticized the DC and ASI authorities for writing to the head office in Delhi when everyone knows which Masjid is constructed. The activists served 25 days ultimatum to furnish them detailed reply to the petitions presented to the district administration and announced that they are well prepared to protect the Hindu religious places and that the construction of the Ram Temple at Ayodhya is a testimony to it.