The Hindu protestors yet again disrupted the Friday prayers in Gurgaon. The protestors shouted slogans against the prayers, holding placards that said “Gurgaon administration, wake up from your sleep.”

The Haryana Police have deployed 500 of its personnel in Gurugram to help Muslims offer Namaz in public places on Friday after Hindu groups have been protesting against the same for weeks. The Commissioner of Police, KK Rao, has said that policemen have been directed to take “strict action” against those protesting against Namaz in public spaces.

Meanwhile, Muslim groups have called more people from Nuh and Pataudi for ‘support’, a report by the Hindustan Times says. It is not clearly, however, whether Muslims from Nuh and Pataudi actually responded to the call. Nuh is in Mewat and reportedly, a large number of Rohingyas have been settled there in the recent past. Mewat has high crime rates and is often referred to as ‘Mini Pakistan’.

The chairman of Muslim Ekta Manch, Haji Shehzad Khan, said, “If they (Hindu groups) shout slogans, we will not sit silent. We don’t want to disturb law and order situation, but if they target us, we will not sit quiet.” He proceeded to add, “We don’t want any confrontation and conflict; we are ready to relocate to another place provided the administration can guarantee peace.”

The Haryana Police has detained several Hindus over the matter on Friday. Hindustan Times journalist Leena Dhandhkar described the protesters as “rightwing Hindus” who were taken to the nearest police station after detaining them to ensure “peaceful prayers”.

“People have offered namaz in 37 designated places (and) full protection will be given to people who are offering namaz. Everything is peaceful here. We have detained people who were here to disrupt namaz. We tried to negotiate with them over the last few weeks (but) have taken swift action today,” Gurgaon SDM Anita Chaudhary was quoted by NDTV.

The Haryana Police also detained women over the matter.

Namaz was offered under police protection at Sector 12.

Hindus have been protesting vociferously against the matter. They have sung bhajans, raised slogans and demonstrated with placards to protesting against Namaz in public spaces. Residents say that the Namaz creates public nuisance and traffic jams. They also say that most Muslims who offer Namaz there come from far off places.

The Police, however, claims that the specific spots were decided for Namaz after ‘mutual understanding’ between the two communities. “The Namaz spots at public places have been decided by both Hindu and Muslim communities after mutual understanding and this place is one among them. Maintaining communal harmony and peace is our utmost responsibility and we will ensure that,” the Gurugram Police had said through its official Twitter handle in later September.

Despite the claims by the Police, the protests have continued and on the 29th of October, Hindus were detained to ensure that Muslims could offer Namaz in public places.

In 2018, the district administration had designated 37 sites in the city for Muslims to offer Friday prayers.

References:

nationalheraldindia.com - Sanjukta Basu
indiatimes.com - Bobins Abraham
opindia.com - OpIndia Staff