Bihar Sharif, India – Glass shards, stones, bricks and liquor bottles are unfold all throughout the compound. The door on the entrance of the primary constructing of the seminary is lacking. The wreckage of burned followers, home windows, doorways and furnishings is mendacity on the ground, blackened with soot. In a single nook, water is dripping from the damaged ceiling.

This was the scene when Al Jazeera earlier this month visited Madrassa Azizia, a distinguished Muslim faculty in Bihar Sharif city of Nalanda district in jap India’s Bihar state.

The varsity within the city’s Murarpur neighbourhood, established over a century in the past, was attacked by a mob on March 31 throughout Ram Navami, a Hindu competition that, in line with rights teams, noticed numerous processions cross by means of primarily Muslim neighbourhoods throughout India, with folks carrying weapons, chanting provocative slogans and even attacking retailers, properties and non secular buildings.

Residents mentioned a mob of about 1,000 males – armed with sticks and petrol bombs – barged into the varsity and set it on hearth, destroying its library that housed almost 5,000 books, together with treasured manuscripts and historic paperwork.

Mohan Bahadur, the varsity’s safety guard, instructed Al Jazeera the mob was shouting “Jai Shri Ram” (Hail Lord Ram), a non secular slogan that has turn out to be a rallying cry for Hindu right-wing teams in opposition to its minorities, primarily Muslims and Christians.

Bahadur mentioned when he noticed the procession advance in the direction of the varsity, he tried to lock its gates. “However the crowd pelted stones and broke the gate,” he mentioned.

“A person from the gang pushed and slapped me, and yelled at me, ‘You Nepali bastard, we’ll kill you,’” Bahadur mentioned, including that he received scared and ran away from the positioning.

Mohammad Shakir Qasmi, the principal of the varsity, instructed Al Jazeera he was at his residence to interrupt his Ramadan quick when the violence erupted.

“Once I received a name from the safety guard, I rushed out and reached the primary highway the place I noticed some boys had been pelting stones and a wedding corridor was on hearth,” he mentioned.

Qasmi mentioned when he visited the varsity the following morning, he was shocked by what he noticed.

“They [rioters] had tried to destroy the whole lot. I cried once I noticed that 1000’s of books had turned to ash. I can’t imagine they did this and I had by no means thought this might ever occur right here,” he instructed Al Jazeera.

Among the many books the varsity’s library had had been copies of the Quran, books on Hadith, and handwritten Islamic books relationship to greater than 100 years. “All these books at the moment are gone,” mentioned Qasmi.

When Al Jazeera visited the varsity on April 2, the indicators of violence had been nonetheless contemporary.

Mohammad Shahabuddin, the imam of a close-by mosque that was additionally attacked, was sifting by means of piles of ash, amassing half-burned pages of the Quran and different books, and stacking them apart.

“We had been making ready for iftar when the mob barged in. We needed to run away for our security. They broke the gate, knocked down the minarets of the mosque and set hearth to the automobiles that had been parked within the yard of the mosque,” he mentioned.

The imam mentioned he locked himself in a room contained in the mosque for hours earlier than he was rescued by the police.

Qasmi and Shahabuddin alleged the police had been absent from the streets when the violence broke out and arrived hours later regardless of the closest police station at Laheri being barely 500 metres (1,640 toes) away from the varsity.

Ashok Mishra, a senior police officer in Nalanda, mentioned police have arrested 130 folks, whereas raids had been on for extra arrests after figuring out culprits utilizing the safety digicam footage.

“Efforts are being made to normalise the state of affairs by conducting peace marches,” Mishra instructed Al Jazeera.

Naushad Alam, a senior official in Bihar’s capital Patna who visited the violence-hit areas in Nalanda, instructed Al Jazeera the state authorities was taking steps to make sure peace and concord within the space.

In the meantime, the burning of the varsity and its historic library has sparked outrage among the many state’s Muslims.

“All of the books had been treasured and distinctive,” Umar Ashraf, a 27-year-old historical past blogger, instructed Al Jazeera.

“Even the furnishings on the library was distinctive. There have been uncommon books on philosophy, logic and conventional drugs. The assault appears to be a deliberate act of erasing our treasured literature.”

Ashraf mentioned the varsity was established round 1900 by Bibi Soghra, a distinguished Muslim philanthropist who devoted her property to the training of individuals and different group works.

He mentioned greater than 500 youngsters had been enrolled in one in every of Bihar’s oldest faculties the place aside from Islamic training in Quran, jurisprudence and Hadith, the scholars additionally studied English, maths, sciences and humanities.

In a assertion final week, rights group Human Rights Watch mentioned India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Get together (BJP) was utilizing Hindu festivals “to rally voters, resulting in a rise in violence”.

“These mobs are emboldened by a way of political patronage that affords them impunity,” mentioned Meenakshi Ganguly, the group’s South Asia director.

Bihar, nonetheless, is at present dominated by a coalition against the BJP.

On Saturday, state’s Chief Minister Nitish Kumar mentioned his authorities was working to compensate for the losses suffered by the folks in the course of the riots in Bihar Sharif.

“The administration is doing its job. Wherever there was any injury [due to violence] we’re wanting into that. We’ll do no matter is required to be carried out for the folks,” he instructed the reporters.