JAIPUR — A stampede-like situation broke out at the shrine of Khwaja Moinuddin Hasan Chishti in Ajmer after a scuffle started between two groups.
The commotion took place late on Saturday night, the sixth night of the annual Urs.
Police officials said that Barelvi (Muslims of Bareilly ) and Khadim (those who pray at dargah) clashed with each other after sloganeering was raised by the former praising their Guru. The police somehow pacified the matter.
At present, the atmosphere in the dargah area is peaceful. A large number of police forces are deployed.
According to eyewitnesses, sloganeering started from a group of Barelvis sitting in the Shahjahani Masjid after 2 a.m. on Saturday night. On the other hand, when the Khadims of the dargah protested against the sloganeering, both the groups got entangled and a fight ensued.
Seeing the fighting, there was chaos among the thousands of pilgrims present there and a situation of stampede was created. The situation became such that the volunteers deployed to control the crowd also ran away by jumping the wall of the mosque. A video of this entire incident has also surfaced.
Experts associated with the dargah say that there is a long-standing dispute between the Khadims and the Barelvis. The Muslims of Bareilly come to the dargah and praise their Guru Taju Sariya.
In 2018 too, there was an uproar in the dargah over such sloganeering. The complaint regarding this matter was also given to the administration on behalf of the Anjuman Committee. Before that an appeal was made by placing posters at various places that slogans should be raised only in the glory of Khwaja Saheb.
Meanwhile, the police controlled the situation by reaching on time.
Dargah police station in-charge, Amar Singh said that he had reached the spot as soon as they got the information about the sloganeering. Both sides were placated, however, so far no party has filed the report. — IANS
