"In Islam, when some great crisis strikes us, we pray to god by calling azaan. The maulvis and the rest of us were doing only that, but the police attacked us for no reason," says Mohammad Nazim, who lives next to the graveyard.
"They could have fired tear gas shells or even resorted to a lathi-charge but they straightaway fired at us without any reason," Nazim adds.
Afzal Karim, a tea vendor, shows a bullet mark on the wall of his shop.
"Look at this. The bullet mark is above 5 feet on this wall. Don't you think it is wrong for the police to shoot above the waist at innocent people? And they did it without any provocation," says Karim.
Thane Joint Commissioner of Police Dr R T Rathod says the police did fire tear gas shells, but the mob refused to disburse.
"Only then we had to fire on them for our safety. Twenty policemen were injured and so were two senior police officers," says Rathod. "The police took action in self defence."
Bhiwandi Deputy Commissioner of Police R D Shinde is recuperating at Bombay Hospital.
The man on the street, however, is convinced the police slapped a maulvi, and cites it as the root cause of the violence.
Image: Police at the disputed outpost near a Muslim graveyard in Bhiwandi
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