“We were holding a majlis outside the college peacefully, but some people tried to disrupt our proceedings,” said the Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawad. And so naturally the proper response to that was to go ape and start burning and destroying things. “Cleric detained, supporters go on rampage in Lucknow,” from Indian Express, November 15 (thanks to Java):
Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawad was on Sunday detained by the police during a demonstration against a board meeting of the trustees of Shia Post Graduate College.
Jawad, a board member, wanted the meeting to be cancelled as Sunday was the day of martyrdom of one of the Prophets.
The detention triggered violent protests by his supporters in the old city of Lucknow. People, including women and children, indulged in arson and vandalism in Hussainabad, Chowk, Kashmiri Mohalla and other areas for more than four hours. The protesters also set a roadways bus on fire. The police resorted to lathicharge and lobbed teargas shells to control the crowd….
Additional District Magistrate O P Pathak said: “Around 10.30 am, Kalbe Jawad along with his supporters staged a protest outside reached the Shia College. They tried to prevent members from enteringthe college premises.”
The police said though Jawad and others were released after two hours, they refused to leave the police line. The cleric wanted the police to arrest those present inside the college premises, alleging that they had tried to attack him and his supporters.
Jawad said he had gone to the college to hold a majlis (religious congregation). “We were holding a majlis outside the college peacefully, but some people tried to distrupt [sic] our proceedings,” he said.