Inquiry ordered after Hindu outfit claims house being used as mosque in Uttarakhand

Pithoragarh, Oct 9 (PTI) An inquiry has been ordered after members of an Hindu outfit staged a protest outside the SDM's office in Berinag here demanding removal of an 'illegal' mosque being run in a house, officials said on Wednesday.
     According to the protestors, an abandoned house in Berinag has allegedly been converted illegally into a mosque from inside to offer Namaz.
     Levelling the allegation, the Hindu outfit Rashtriya Sewa Sangathan staged a protest outside Berinag SDM's office on October 6 demanding removal of the illegal mosque.
     An inquiry was ordered into the allegation after a memorandum was received from the organisation, Pithoragarh District Magistrate Vinod Girish Goswami said.
     "We have demanded removal of the illegal mosque. If it continues to run, we will have to resort to a nationwide agitation against it," Himanshu Joshi, founder-president of the outfit, said.
     A case under section 196/2 of BNS (promoting enmity between groups on grounds of religion) has also been registered against Rashtriya Sewa Sanghathan members after they showed the mosque live on social media sometime ago, the officials said.
     According to locals, the old house, owned by one Azim who lives in Haldwani, is being used by about 100 Muslim families to offer Namaz for the last 25 years.
     A portion of the house is also being used as a madrasa, they said.
     From outside it looks like any other residential house without external signs of its being a mosque but from inside it has been developed as one, locals said.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)