Rampur: Unidentified miscreants have been booked for allegedly attempting to set on fire a place of worship after an altercation over loudspeaker in Ratanpura-Shumali village under the jurisdiction of Azeem Nagar police station here on Thursday morning.Swar-Tanda circle officer Rahul Kumar said the fire gutted religious books and other articles of religious importance, but no injury was reported.Azeem Nagar SHO Rajeev Kumar said, “An FIR has been registered against unidentified miscreants under section 295 (injuring or defiling place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class) and 436 (mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to destroy house, etc) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).”As tension prevailed in the village after the incident, police officers rushed to the spot. “The incident took place around 10.45am, and soon, police personnel from Azeem Nagar station house and a reserve battalion from police lines and personnel from five other police stations were rushed to the spot. Although nobody was injured, a team of forensic experts collected evidence from the spot,” said Rahul.“Local residents told police that when they saw smoke billowing out of ventilators of the structure, they rushed there and put out the flames,” Rahul added.Assuring the residents that police would bring the perpetrators to justice, Rahul said, “We will not tolerate such incidents. We have already launched a manhunt to arrest the culprits. They will be behind bars soon and the National Security Act (NSA) will also be invoked against them.”Appealing to people to maintain peace, Ratanpura-Shumali pradhan Iftayqar Ali said, “Such incidents have never taken place in the village. Altercation over loudspeaker was not a big issue and could have been resolved amicably.”Meanwhile, police suspect drug addicts to be behind the incident. “Investigation is going on. Police teams are working on it and soon the perpetrators will be arrested.”

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