On Thursday, September 8, the Bareilly police in Uttar Pradesh arrested one Samad Ahmed for threatening to bomb a mosque and kill an imam. Ahmed was the accused who had on September 7 pasted a poster with a threat note written on it on the wall of the Shahi Jama mosque in the qila area of Bareilly. The letter threatened to bomb Jama Masjid and kill Imam Khurshid Alam.
Bareilly police took to its official Twitter handle to inform about the arrest.
According to the police, the accused confessed that he was agitated as the Imam of the mosque had barred him from playing DJ music to celebrate Eid-Milad-un-Nabi in October, calling the practice “anti-Islamic”. The accused further added that he wanted to teach the Imam a lesson. The police further confirmed that Ahmed had spent Rs 1.10 lakh to book the DJ and was furious when he was not allowed to play it.
Meanwhile, speaking about the case, Circle officer Ashish Kumar Pratap said the accused was booked under relevant sections of the IPC and has been sent to jail.
On Wednesday, Khurshid Alam, Imam of the Jama Masjid, approached the police and informed them about the threat letter in which it was written that the mosque would be blown up and that the cleric would be gunned down on Friday if he was not removed from his post.
The threat note in the poster said, “A bomb will be placed in the mosque on any Friday. This Imam should be removed, stay away from the mosque, Khurshid Alam should be removed, otherwise, he will be shot.”
The matter had been taken seriously by the Masjid Intezamia Committee. In this regard, the manager of the mosque, Dr Abdul Nafees Khan, had given a complaint to the qila police station in charge and demanded action.
The police officials tightened security arrangements around Jama Masjid and soon a police force was also deployed there. The search operation was conducted by the dog squad team in the presence of CO (second) Ashish Pratap Singh.