Two Temple desecration incidents in Jammu in 36 hours by members of the Religion of Peace and the mainstream media in its state of secularism-induced trance doesn’t seem concerned enough to highlight the issue. Of course, it seems reasonable that temples don’t deserve as much attention as the hoax attacks on the Church as it would disturb the secular fabric of the country.
In one incident in the Nanak Nagar Area in Jammu, the guilty was allegedly inebriated when he vandalized the Temple. The other incident which involved the desecration of the Aap Shambhu Temple in Roop Nagar area. The accused in this case, Mohammad Yasir, is allegedly a mentally unstable person who had escaped from an asylum. It almost seems too convenient and suspicious that in two separate cases, that an inebriated and a mentally challenged person desecrated two different temples.
Violence raised its ugly head after worshippers rushed to a nearby police station but allegedly, head constable Rehmat Ullah refused to register a case against Yasir. Instead the constable misbehaved with the complainants including a priest. The cop has apparently been suspended. Since then, Mohammad Yasir has been arrested and a probe is underway to ascertain his mental illness. Yasir’s brother has been detained as well.
Mobile internet continue to remain suspended for the third consecutive day in Jammu even after broadband services were restored in the region on Friday. According to Deputy Commissioner Jammu, Simrandeep Singh, “The decision to snap the mobile Internet services was taken to stop rumour mongering in the region and to control any flare-up in the situation in wake of the two incidents of desecration of temples.” A clip that went viral on Social Media showing the defacement of the idols certainly played its part.
Various organizations have demanded a thorough probe into the incident alleging a deeper conspiracy to disturb the peace in the region. Former state president of VHP, Leela Karan Sharma asserted, “There is a deep-rooted conspiracy to disturb peace in Jammu region by desecrating the temples. The authorities must identify the real culprits and punish them accordingly.” President of Guru Manyo Granth Society, Jasdeep Singh demanded that the government expose the deep rooted conspiracy to destabilize the peace in the region if there was any. Various other religious and political organizations appealed for calm and peace amidst the turmoil and Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti added that some sections were ‘hellbent’ on creating communal tensions in the region.
According to the Police, normalcy has been restored in the region and the situation in all parts of Jammu are under control and mobile internet services would be restored soon enough. Meanwhile, the Deputy Commissioner has assured that all possible angles are being investigated. President of Shiv Sena and Dogra Front, Ashok Gupta went so far as to claim that the man who vandalized the Temple in Nanak Nagar called somebody and said that the job was done.
On the face of it, it seems too much of a coincidence that an inebriated and a mentally unstable person acted of their own volition and vandalized temples and desecrated idols without any external motivation in the space of 36 hours in two separate incidents. While it may be perfectly true that the actual perpetrators were not in a stable state of mind, the possibility that they were acting under orders from people with a greater goal is quite high given the history and background of the region.
The mainstream media is again conspicuous by its silence over the desecration issue. The media which does not refrain from peddling all sorts of lies and rumour mongering when a minority institution or a person from a minority community is apparently the victim has conveniently ignored the issue or treated it with minimum fuss now that it’s pretty clear the perpetrators were members of the peaceful community and the subject of attack were Temples. Even when there is no cause for concern, the media invents its minority under attack narrative and perpetuates all sorts of rumor to paint the majority community in bad light. But now, it should be plainly clear where the actual allegiance of the Media.