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Gurugram: Muslims offer namaz in open without disruption
The Sanyukt Hindu Sangharsh Samiti, which is leading the protests against namaz in open spaces, said it decided not to disrupt namaz on the last day of the year.
Members of the Muslim community said they prayed in the open in Shankar Chowk, Udyog Vihar, Palam Vihar, and sectors 12, 29, 44, and 45 without any disruption on Friday, the first time namaz was offered without protests from right-wing groups in nearly four months.
Some members of Sanyukt Hindu Sangharsh Samiti, an umbrella body of Hindu right-wing groups, which is leading the protests against namaz in open spaces, did gather at Shankar Chowk before the namaz congregation, but were turned away by police teams deployed at all the spots, police said.
Rajiv Yadav, assistant commissioner of police, said that Muslims offered prayers peacefully on Friday. “Some members of the right-wing group gathered at one of the sites, but we warned them of action, following which they went away. Muslims gathered at seven sites, including Udyog Vihar, and offered namaz peacefully,” he said.
On December 10, Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar had said offering namaz at public places cannot be tolerated, even as the district administration withdrew permission for Friday namaz at 20 designated sites amid protests by members of Hindu outfits who parked vehicles and organised programmes to prevent Muslims from offering namaz.
“Today, we offered Friday prayers in several places peacefully after months. But right-wing groups who were disrupting Friday namaz and, most recently, Christmas celebrations in the Millennium City have reached a new low by hailing Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse. Such vigilante groups are disturbing the communal harmony of this city,” said Altaf Ahmad, spokesperson, Gurgaon Muslim Council.
Kulbhushan Bhardwaj, legal advisor of Sanyukt Hindu Sangharsh Samiti, said that the group met Friday morning and decided not to disrupt namaz on the last day of the year. “But this was the last time we allowed them to offer prayers. From 2022, we will not let them use any public place for offering namaz,” he said.
Meanwhile, some members of the right-wing group said on Friday that they could not protest at the spots where namaz was offered as they were busy protesting against the arrest of Hindu seer Kalicharan Maharaj.
The seer was arrested from Madhya Pradesh on Thursday for allegedly making derogatory remarks against Mahatma Gandhi during a religious gathering in Chhattisgarh earlier this month.
Praveen Yadav, a member of the Samiti who has been leading the protest against Friday namaz in Sirhaul, Sector 37, Sector 22 and Udyog Vihar, confirmed the group was busy protesting the seer’s arrest. “Muslims are taking advantage of the situation. The administration will have to take some serious action or else they will continue to encroach upon public places,” he said.
Hindu right-wing groups have been protesting against Friday namaz in open spaces in Gurugram for the past three years. In 2018, the administration designated 37 sites for Muslims to perform Friday prayers. However, last month, the number of sites was reduced to 20 after members of right-wing groups as well as locals continued to protest and disrupt prayers. Muslims, however, have maintained that they are forced to use public spaces since there are not enough mosques in the city.
Gurugram district has around 500,000 Muslims, of whom around 150,000 offer namaz on Fridays, said officials.
