SRINAGAR, June 29: Hundreds of people, including women, today took to streets on outskirts of Srinagar, Kashmir’s summer capital,   alleging that some miscreants had tried to set on fire a shrine and a mosque besides showing disrespect to a Holy Book.

The trouble started when some people, who had gone to offer morning prayers in a local mosque at village Gund Hassi Bhat , saw torn pages of Holy book on the road.

Later they also came to know that some miscreants had tried to set on fire a shrine and a mosque by leaking gas cylinders. However, fire had not spread, Moulvi of the mosque said.

As the news spread in the village, all villagers, including women and children, took to streets and staged a dharna at Srinagar-Baramulla highway. However, they did not disrupt traffic on the highway.

The demonstrators, raising religious slogans, demanded immediate arrest of all those involved in the incident.

They said after the shrine of Peer Dastgeer sahib at Khanyar was gutted in mysterious fire incident and damage to Mehboob-ul-Aalam private college at Bandipora yesterday, some persons having vested interest tried to set on fire a shrine and a mosque at Gund Hassi Bhat during the night intervening June 28-29 to communalise the situation.

Early this month, pages of Holy Book were seen on roadside in Bandipora.

Later, additional security forces and state police personnel rushed to the area to control the situation, which was under control but tense.

(UNI)