Gurugram, November 26
Disruptions to public Namaz offerings continued on Friday when over 100 people raised Hindu slogans, conducted a prayer of their own, and chanted the Hanuman Chalisa a few metres from where some Muslims were offering their Friday prayers.
Muslims offer namaz at an open ground while Hindus perform havan at the same place nearby in Gurugram on Friday. PTI file photo
The protest site this time was near the Sector 37 police station. People flocked to the prayer site from Mohammadpur Jharsa, Khandsa, Narsinghpur, and Khatola villages and held a havan they proclaimed was for the “martyrs of 26/11” on the 13th anniversary of the Mumbai attacks.
The group also chanted “Jai Shri Ram”—a slogan that several fringe Hindu organisations are seen using increasingly as a weapon of intimidation—even as police stood nearby in large numbers to prevent escalation.
The prayer site is one of several designated by the Gurugram administration for Muslims to offer the “jumma” prayers. Public protests led the Gurugram administration to withdraw eight sites from their list of 37 sanctioned for Friday prayers.
Meanwhile, some Sikhs protested the gurdwara committee’s decision to offer Gurudwara Singh Sabha, located near the sabzi mandi, for namaz.
“Gurudwara is meant only for Gurbani and is not a rental place for mass religious gatherings,” said Sardar Ravi Ranjan of Gurmat Prachar Jatha Panth Khalsa. “We’re surprised that how the head of the gurudwara committee offered it to Muslims for Namaz. It goes completely against our Gur-Maryada.”
