Gurgaon: Right-wing group Bharat Mata Vahini tried to disrupt Friday prayers yet again in Gurgaon — this time, at three more locations in sectors 29, 43 and 44 — reiterating its demand for a city-wide ban on offering namaz in public places. This development came after similar disruptions by the group in Sector 40 for the past few weeks. Meanwhile, Friday prayers in Sector 40 have been suspended for the time being.
Around noon on Friday, members of Bharat Mata Vahini, led by Dinesh Bharti, appeared in Sector 44 and told the Imam and others that they would not be allowed to offer Friday prayers at the site. “The group asked me if we had permission to offer prayers at the spot. I told them the site is in the list approved by the administration and the police have been regularly coming here for safety purposes,” said Junaid, the imam.
Junaid said Bharti kept arguing with him and said they wanted to chant Hanuman chalisa at the same spot.
“I told him we could offer namaz and they could chant Hanuman chalisa alongside, which would send a message of unity between the two communities. But Bharti was not convinced and said that the administration or the police had no role in giving permissions for Friday prayers,” he said.
Later Junaid went to the Sushant Lok-1 police station and submitted a complaint in the matter. However, no FIR has been registered as yet. “We are taking action as per the law,” the SHO told TOI. Gurgaon police’s DCP (east) Maqsood Ahmed could not be reached for a comment.
Meanwhile, the Friday prayers at the Sector 40 site have been suspended for the time being. “The district administration has clarified that this site was actually not on the list. We had chalked out an arrangement with the administration to let prayers happen here after we reduced the number of namaz sites from 100 to 40 in 2018,” said local imam Absul Hasif.
“We have spoken to the SHO of the Sector 40 police station for safety arrangements next week when Ramzan starts,” Hasif added.