Ludhiana: No Muslims in this village for 70 years, but a mosque still stands tall

The mosque was built between 1910-20 and the village never witnessed any communal tension. (Representative image)  |  Photo Credit: Getty Images

Ludhiana: It's been 70 years since Muslims in this village of Ludhiana in Punjab left for Pakistan after India's partition. But a pre-partition mosque still stands tall in Hedon Bet village and nobody ever talked of demolishing this place of worship.

It's the best example of communal harmony that the residents of Hedon Bet village have set for all to see.

The village, 55 km from Ludhiana, used to host 50 Muslim families before partition. Since partition of the country, no Muslim family resides in the village leaving the mosque in a dilapidated state.

According to a report in Hindustan Times, the mosque which is in a dire need of repair is cleaned on a daily basis and still keeps a copy of the holy Quran.

The caretaker of the mosque, Prem Singh, said once a pipal tree endangered the structure of the mosque when its branches entered inside the mosque. He said the branches were cut to save the mosque.

“The mosque has always been here. No one has ever talked of demolishing it. It is the house of God,” the report quoted one 95-year-old Dhanwant Kaur, who visited village from Sialkot in Pakistan.

According to another villager Bhagat Singh, who is now 88, the mosque was built between 1910-20 and the village never witnessed any communal tension. Singh said this mosque and the other one at Salana, 6 km away from Hedon Bet, were built by the same mason.

After the partition, the mason asked the Muslim village residents to migrate to newly formed Pakistan citing threat to their life during the mayhem of the partition.  

“The houses surrounding the mosque were of Muslims. When people started living here after the Partition, no one cared for the mosque. All members of a family living in a house behind the mosque were afflicted with serious ailments. Many of them died and those who survived left the place," Prem Singh told HT.

Prem Singh further says that people in the village had some years ago asked him to clean the mosque and light a earthen lamp everyday. Now, Singh says everything is fine in the village.