While last week’s absurd protests by mostly people of the ring-wing group at a congregation of people offering namaz in Gurgaon, a similar event took place today. The daily prayers of Muslims were disrupted once again at Sector 12-A, even though they were praying at the designated places allotted by the Haryana government.
Several people joined the protests today shouting derogatory slogans in chorus at the people praying. Placards reading “Gurgaon administration, wake up from your sleep” were also held up by some of them.
As the protests took place last week as well in Sector 12-A and 47, the police were well prepared and took swift action today, detaining 30 of the protester. This is the third consecutive week when protesterhave disrupted namaz, claiming that the Muslims are either “Rohingya refugees” or just regulars planning “mischievous elements”. Locals alleged that the people praying are using namaz as an excuse to commit crimes in the area.
However, the police had taken no action the previous times despite being present on site. The Gurgaon SDM Anita Chaudhary said today, “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,” adding, “People have offered namaz in 37 designated places, full protection will be given to people who are offering namaz.”
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Clips from today’s protests show people- nearly everyone without a mask and no maintenance of social distancing- shouting “band karo, band karo” (stop it, stop it) at the namazees.
As per the authorities, the cops acted fast today and 500 personnel were deployed to calm the ruckus.
Last week, ring-wing group members and other people had crowded at the namaz site shouting “Jai Shri Ram” despite the Muslims offering prayers on a private property. The protest was headed by a local lawyer named Kulbhushan Bharadwaj who was also the one representing the Jamia Milia shooter after he delivered communal speeches and got arrested. This former BJP leader was also seen in one of the videos arguing with the police.
Before this, the Muslims had to deal with the uncalled hatred of the people in Sector 47, which is considered to be a more uptown area. While they were offering namaz on the government allotted lands (for namaz), the group pounced, shouting at them to stop their prayers or do it indoors.
Many people alleged that Muslims block roads and create traffic by praying on roads, though no evidence was found supporting this claim.
The police chose not to arrest or detain the violent protestors but rather offer “assurances” about the sites where Muslims can pray.
There are 37 places in Gurgaon that are offered by the Haryana government for namaz. Sector 47 and Sector 12-A are a part of this list. The places were designated for prayers after arguments erupted back in 2018 over similar claims of Muslims blocking roads.
The junior Social Justice minister, Krishan Pal Gujar, said last week post the protests that people have to be permitted to offer prayers in the land given by the administration for it.
While every person has the right to pray, “those offering prayers should not block road traffic, Haryana Chief Minister ML Khattar joined chords following the Sector 47 protests in early October.
“No one should hurt sentiments nor should anyone disrupt prayers… and if they are praying at designated sites, as suggested by the district administration, that should not be disrupted,” the CM said adding that the issue needs to be solved calmly as is being done by the local administration already.
