‘Inter-religious harmony’: Sikhs, Hindus build Mosque in Indian Punjab in ‘exceptional’ gesture

According to the international news outlet, there are seven gurdwaras and two temples in the Bhaloor village in Punjab's Moga district, but no mosque for 20 Muslim residents.

The village sarpanch, Pala Singh, told the News outlet that there was a mosque in the area before the partition of the subcontinent in 1947, but many Muslims left the village and the condition of the mosque deteriorated.

Last Sunday, village leaders laid the foundation stone of the Mohammadi Mosque.

“Some people donated $2,800 at the venue itself and more help was assured,” Anwar Khan, head of the mosque’s managing committee, told, adding that many nonresident Indians from Punjab had also pledged support for the mosque.

The construction of the new mosque is expected to be completed next year at $17,000.

Top religious figures who attended the groundbreaking ceremony of the mosque included clerics and royal imam Maulana Muhammad Usman Rahmani Ludhianvi.

Usman Ludhianvi said that the day the ceremony took place was written in golden letters in history.

“The mosque is the reflection of the love of the villagers,” Ludhianvi said, adding that Sikhs and Muslims share a “very close historical bond,” and that “a true Sikh and a true Muslim never harm each other.”

Meanwhile, last month, a century-old mosque was martyred by the local administration in Uttar Pradesh's Barabanki district, claiming that the mosque never existed.

Muslim families living near a temple in the same state for 100 years were also asked to vacate their ancestral home for security reasons.

Village head Singh said: “The rest of the country needs to take a lesson from us.

“Punjab has a history of communal harmony, and we felt that Muslim families too have the right to offer their prayers in their religious place.”