Peaceful Friday in Gurugram

Offering of jumma namaz went off peacefully at 47 designated spots, including 23 open public spaces, across Gurugram on Friday amid heavy police deployment.

The Sanyukt Hindu Sangharsh Samiti, a conglomeration of several right-wing organisations that has been leading the protests against offering of prayers in open spaces, had assured the district administration a few days ago that it would not disrupt prayers on Friday.

Members of the outfit had met Deputy Commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh on May 16.

“It all went off peacefully. No incident of violence or disruption was reported,” said Gurugram Deputy Commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh.

Members of a little-known outfit, Bharat Bachcho Sangathan, however, staged a token protest outside the mini-secretariat and submitted a letter to the district administration seeking a ban on Muslim prayer congregations in the open. Some members of the samiti’s executive committee also took part in the protest.

The convener of the samiti, Mahavir Bhardwaj, however, told The Hindu that their organisation had distanced itself from the protest by the sangathan and reiterated their assurance to not disrupt namaz.

“We are firm on our demands to reduce the open public spaces for namaz to five, but we have full faith in the administration. Already, the number of such spaces have been reduced to one-fourth,” said Mr. Bhardwaj.

Some trouble

A few families in Bhora Kalan village, however, alleged that some locals did not allow them to offer namaz despite the presence of police. One of the residents alleged that members of the majority community were not allowing the Imam to enter the village.

“It is a Hindu dominated village and the minority community is not being allowed to offer jumma namaz since last Friday. We had a regular Imam at the mosque in the village four years ago, but the majority community objected to it after tension between the two communities,” said the resident.

“The relations had started improving, but tension gripped the village after the recent controversy over offering of namaz in the open,” he said. The resident claimed that a delegation had met Police Commissioner Sandeep Khirwar on Friday over the issue but only got a verbal assurance.

Several prominent citizens of the city also called on Mr. Singh on Friday alleging discrimination against Muslims exercising right to pray. Coming together under the banner of Gurgaon Nagrik Ekta Manch, the group demanded action against vigilantes threatening to disrupt namaz.