By Scroll Staff
A group of women in Uttar Pradesh’s Fatehpur district on Wednesday clashed with the police while trying to perform Hindu prayers at a mausoleum site, sparking tensions in the area, PTI reported.
The nearly 500-year-old mausoleum, located in Fatehpur’s Abu Nagar area, is of Nawab Abdul Samad Khan, an official who worked for Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. Hindutva groups have claimed that the structure was constructed after razing a Hindu temple.
Around 6 pm on Wednesday, about 20 Hindu women, carrying earthen lamps and prayer material, approached the barricades around the mausoleum, PTI quoted Additional Superintendent of Police Mahendra Pal Singh as saying.
The site has been barricaded by the police because of ongoing litigation pertaining to it.
Some women on Wednesday allegedly tried to remove or climb over the barriers, after which the police tried to restrain them, the news agency quoted unidentified officials as saying.
The women engaged in an argument with Station House Officer Tarkeshwar Rai, and accused the police of misconduct. They eventually performed Hindu prayers from a nearby lane in front of the structure.
Videos on social media showed them praying amid heavy security presence.
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