As the residents in Gurugram continue to protest against Muslims offering Namaz at public places in their areas on Fridays, some of them today took the matter into their own hands to prevent the same. As the police have refused to stop namaz at public places despite opposition from the locals, some activists spread cow dung cakes on the ground at Gurugram’s Sector 12A, which prevented the Muslims from offering their Friday prayers there.
The members of Hindu groups also gathered at the spot, and said that they are planning to set up a volleyball ground there. “We are sitting here quietly… but will not allow prayers. We will plan for a game here,” one activist Pramila Chahar said, according to an NDTV report. Another activist named Veer Yadav said, “We will set up a net… will build a volleyball court here, children will play. Will not allow namaz, no matter what.”
Photographs from the place show rows of cow dung cakes spread across the ground. Reportedly, the Hindu activists had held a puja last week which included covering the ground used by Muslims to offer Namaz with cow dung cakes, which have not been removed after that.
As a result, even though Muslims had assembled at the spot as per routine, they could not offer Friday prayers today. “We have told everyone that until we have an agreement with our Hindu brothers, we will not be offering prayers here… DC saheb has also given us a week,” the Muslim organisations said.
The spot at Sector 12A is among the sites in Gurugram “designated” for Namaz by Muslims, which was granted to Muslims after an alleged agreement with Hindus in 2018. But for the last few months, residents in several of those areas have been opposing this. Protests by Hindu groups have become a regular affair in those Namaz sites every Friday, and police forces are being deployed to prevent any clash and to ensure that Muslims can offer their prayers.
The NDTV report adds that the Gurugram authorities have told the Muslims that the permission granted for Namaz will be cancelled if there are objections from locals. Notably, Last week permissions to offer Namaz at eight of those “designated” places were cancelled due to this reason.
“Consent from the administration is necessary for namaz in any public and open place. If local people have objections at other places also, permission will not be given…” the authorities reportedly said. The administration also said a committee to be constituted by Deputy Commissioner Yash Garg will hold discussions on identifying alternative sites for Friday Namaz. Gurugram Police spokesperson Subhash Boken had stated that Namaz could only be offered at mosques and select places.