Weeks after several Hindu right-wing groups stopped Muslims from offering Friday namaz at a public park in Gurugram, prayers-in-public were offered in the city on Friday under tight security. The prayers, which were allowed to be offered at 23 “designated” places, didn’t witness any disruption from the right-wing groups.
While representatives of the Muslim community rued about the fewer number of places earmarked for the namaz by authorities, there was also a significant dip in the number of worshippers, they said.
“Half of our community members didn’t leave their homes for prayers due to fear that some untoward incident might take place. We didn’t come out today to fight anyone. We work here, live with non-Muslims, and work for them. If you don’t allow us to take the name of our God, then we’ll leave this place. Fear factor is there,” Shahzad Khan, one of the representatives of Muslim community in Gurugram, told InUth.
Meanwhile, deputy commissioner, Gurugram, Chander Shekhar Khare, had deployed 76 district magistrates across Gurgaon to help maintain law and order.
While police maintained a tight security near the spots of namaz, members of right-wing groups also kept a vigil that namaz is offered at designated places only.
“We have agreed to the administration’s decision and we don’t want that the peace of the city is disturbed by one incident. At the same time, we’ll not allow Muslims to offer Namaz at places other than those selected by the administration. We didn’t interfere in any gathering today because we wanted to give a chance to the administration,” Rajiv Mittal, National convener of Akhil Bhartiya Hindu Kranti Dal, one of the groups spearheading a campaign against namaz in public, told InUth.
