Amidst heavy police presence, around 200 Muslims offered Friday prayer at Sector 37
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI — An unruly mob of Hindutva supporters including local residents created ruckus in an attempt to disrupt the namaz at a ground in Sector-37 in Gurugram where impasses on congregational Friday prayers of Muslims continues even as three months have passed.
The police swung into action and detained around 10 people including Dinesh Thakur aka Dinesh Bharti, the ring-leader of the goons opposing open namaz.
This is the same site where last Friday Hindutva supporters held their own ‘prayer’ claiming to commemorate the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.
The impasse on namaz has been continuing for close to three months now as Hindutva supporters storm sites and disrupt the prayers on Fridays. They have been successful in pressuring the administration to cancel permission at around a dozen sites and continue to attack the rights of Muslims and communal harmony without any legal consequences.
Eyewitnesses and videos viral on social media report that Hindutva supporters and locals occupied the spot by parking their trucks at the open ground, claiming they don’t have space to park trucks elsewhere.
Amidst heavy police presence, around 200 Muslims offered namaz. A video that has surfaced on social media shows the Imam making dua (praying), pleading for maintenance of communal harmony and peace in the country.
Another video shows a member of the mob wearing saffron color tunic charging towards an elderly Muslim amidst glare of cameras of journalists as the police intervene and round him up in a bus.
The mob shouted slogans “Jai Shri Ram”, “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” and “Vande Mataram”.
Rajender Singh, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), city who was present at the spot, said the police had detained a few members of a group.
“We detained group members who had tried to disrupt Friday prayer and law and order situation at the spot. They were detained as a precautionary measure and necessary action will also be taken against them,” he told IANS.
Dinesh Thakur had also submitted a memorandum to the deputy commissioner of Gurugram on Thursday demanding that religious prayers in public spaces be stopped as they were against the rules.
“The district administration has permitted us to offer Friday prayers at the Sector-37 ground. For many years around 2,500 people used to offer Friday namaz here which has been reduced to 200-300. If Hindu organisations have any problem they should approach the district administration,” Haji Shehzad Khan, chairman, Muslim Ekta Manch, said.
“We are also the citizens of India and want harmony in the city. We are regularly in touch with the authorities concerned and ensure that there is no trouble in the city. The administration has already reduced our designated sites from 37 to 20 but members of some Hindu outfits are continuously humiliating us. The administration needs to take strict action against such people,” Khan said.
