India: Mosque survey dispute erupts into deadly clashes

Four people were killed in clashes sparked by an official survey probing whether a 16th-century mosque was built on the site of a Hindu temple in northern India, officials said on Monday.

As a result, authorities closed schools and suspended internet services in a northern Indian city.

What happened at the Shahi Jama Masjid?

Nearly 1,000 Muslim protesters gathered outside the Shahi Jama Masjid in Sambhal, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, to prevent a team from conducting a court-ordered survey after a petition from a Hindu lawyer that claimed the mosque was built on the site of a Hindu temple, officials said.

"All schools and colleges have been closed and public gatherings have been prohibited" in Sambhal, said a local administrator, Aunjaneya Kumar Singh.

Outsiders, social organizations and public representatives were banned from entering the city without official permission until November 30, according to Singh, in a bid to contain the unrest.

Videos circulating on social media showed scenes of stone-pelting and vehicles engulfed in flames as police said they responded with tear gas.

Hindu nationalists emboldened by Modi government

"Some miscreants in the crowd resorted to violence, forcing us to use minor force and tear gas to restore order," said Krishna Kumar Vishnoi, a local police officer.

Hindu activist groups, mostly linked to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling party, have claimed that several mosques in India were built over Hindu temples centuries ago during the Muslim Mughal empire.

Experts say Hindu nationalists have been emboldened after Modi earlier this year inaugurated a controversial Hindu temple built on the ruins of a centuries-old mosque in the northern city of Ayodhya, in a political triumph for the populist leader who is seeking to transform the country from a secular democracy into a Hindu state.

ftm/msh (AFP, AP)