LUCKNOW: With Holi falling on Friday during the holy month of Ramzan and prominent Muslim clerics of Uttar Pradesh having already revised the timings for Friday prayers, postponing them after 2 pm, 189 mosques in at least four districts of the state were covered with tarpaulin ahead of the festival of colours.
While Muslim clerics have adjusted the timing of Friday prayers across 18 districts of the state on Holi day, mosques in Bareilly, Sambhal, Shahjahanpur, and Aligarh in central-western UP were covered with tarpaulin to protect them from the splash of Holi colors.
For the sake of maintaining peace, UP DGP Prashant Kumar sent a letter to all the district police chiefs, commissionerates, and heads of police zones and ranges with a 20-point directive to fortify the sensitive zones in their respective districts with adequate deployment of police and paramilitary forces.
Besides holding direct interactions with top police officers of the state, the DGP personally met senior officers of sensitive districts and discussed police arrangement for the festival.
In the “hyper-sensitive” Sambhal district, where Shahi Jama Masjid has been caught in a litigation for the past few months over the court-ordered survey, several mosques along with the Jama Masjid were already covered with tarpaulin sheets on Wednesday.
As per the senior police officer of the district, additional paramilitary force for round-the-clock monitoring and vigilance were deployed in the town.
In Sambhal, the Friday Namaz would be held at 2.30 pm due to Holi celebrations. Sambhal Shahi Jama Masjid management committee chief Zafar Ali urged members of both communities to celebrate Holi and offer Friday prayers in a harmonious atmosphere.
Regarding the administration’s move to cover mosques with tarpaulin, Ali welcomed the decision, stating that it was a positive step.
Maximum mosques – 109-- were covered with tarpaulin in Bareilly where a Ram Barat was taken out on Holi eve with strict vigilance and deployment of over 5000 police personnel on all the mosques falling in the route of the Barat.
In Shahjahanpur, 67 mosques were covered before the traditional ‘Laat Sahab Juloos’ on Holi. Shahjahanpur is the only district where there is a tradition of playing ‘Joota Maar Holi’ (playing Holi using shoes/slippers). A person is made to sit on a buffalo cart as “laat sahab” and is made to take the rounds of the city with people throwing colours, shoes and slippers at him.
A senior officer, who is a part of the team monitoring security arrangements at DGP headquarters, said senior officers would escort the traditional procession of ‘Laat Sahab’.
Around 1000 additional cops were called in from other districts for deployment at sensitive spots. The police contingent carried out a flag march on Holi eve in the district.
Similarly, 10 mosques in Sambhal and three in Aligarh were also covered. The drone-equipped vigilance is on across the sensitive districts of the state.
Barricades have been erected along the routes of Holi processions with the installation of several CCTV cameras by the respective local administration.
As per Shahajhanpur SP Rajesh S, in all 18 Holi processions including the two major ‘Laat Saheb’ processions, are taken put in the city. To ensure security, the larger procession was divided into three zones and eight sectors, with around 100 magistrates deployed.
Moreover, police have taken preventive action against 2,423 people to deter potential troublemakers, he said.
Similarly, in other districts including Mathura, Ayodhya, Varanasi, Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Saharanpur, Moradabad, Rampur, Aligarh, Agra, Kanpur, Gonda, Bahraich and Siddharthnagar, additional paramilitary forces have been deployed to avert any untoward incident.
DGP Prashant Kumar said that officers were instructed to ensure that no group was allowed to perform any act or hold untraditional processions.