Children throw stone at 'Laat Sahab' during procession in Uttar Pradesh's Shahjahanpur

Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh: Some children allegedly threw stones at 'Laat Sahab' during procession in Shahjahanpur city on Friday, but police chased them away.

Superintendent of Police (SP) Rajesh S said that the procession of 'Laat Sahab' started from Kunchalal and passed through Phoolmati Mandir and Town Hall and then ended at Kunchalal. During this, at Khirni Bagh intersection, five-six children threw gulal and shoes-slippers on 'Laat Sahab' and then a stone. The policemen present on the spot chased them away, he said.

When asked whether police resorted to lathicharge, the SP denied it.

He said that the procession of 'Laat Saheb' started from Kunchalal and first reached Phoolmati temple, where Laat Saheb offered prayers.

After this, the procession reached Kotwali as per tradition, where 'Laat Saheb' was saluted. Later, 'Laat Saheb' asked the police officer for details of crimes committed throughout the year, and the police officer gave him a bottle of liquor and cash as "bribe".

According to police sources, thousands of revellers played Holi in the procession and hit him with shoes while chanting 'Laat Saheb ki Jai'. Police had made a strong security ring around the Laat Saheb's bullock cart.

The SP said that along with the procession of the 'Bade Laat Saheb', 18 other such processions take place in the city, and two of these are prominent. The entire procession route was divided into three zones and eight sectors.

Municipal Commissioner Vipin Kumar Mishra said that about 20 mosques on the route of the procession were covered with tarpaulin so that they do not get coloured. Along with this, barricading was done near mosques and electric transformers, he said.

For the first time, a procession was taken out in the district jail premises by making an effigy of 'Laat Sahab'. Jail Superintendent Mijaji Lal said that on the request of the prisoners, he made the effigy on the lines of the procession of 'Laat Sahab' in the city. During this, the prisoners applied colours to each other.

The tradition of the procession started in 1728 after Nawab Abdullah Khan, who lived in Shahjahanpur, roamed around the city and played Holi with the people. With time its form deteriorated and the custom of making an unknown person 'Laat Sahab', blackening his face and making him sit on a buffalo cart and throwing shoes and slippers on him along the way of the procession started.

Historian Dr Vikas Khurana said that a petition was filed in the high court in 1990 to stop this procession, but the court refused to intervene, considering it an old tradition.