Hindu activists on Friday barred Muslims from offering namaaz in several open spaces in Gurugram. On Friday at around 1.40 pm, members of Muslim community who had reached sector-43 HUDA ground for Friday prayers were turned back by the protesters.
Members of the Sanyukt Hindu Sangharsh Samiti said that they had stopped namaaz from being conducted in six open spaces in areas that included Cyber Park sector-40, Sikanderpur, Shankar Chowk, Wazirabad, Atul Kataria Chowk and Mehrauli-Gurugram Road.
“They must take permission of the district administration to pray in open spaces. Our only demand was they get permission from the concerned authorities,” a member of the Samiti, one of the protesting outfits said.
Meanwhile, heavy police force was deployed to control unwanted situation between Hindu activists and Muslims.
The police officials said that no complaints had been received in connection with any of the namaaz disruptions. “We had instructed our personnel to maintain law and order. No one would be allowed to create a ruckus. “It is the district administration's call on where it would allow namaaz to happen and where not,” Ravinder Kumar, the spokesperson of Gurugram Police, said.
The Hindu protesters groups alleged that the Friday prayers in Sector 53 and other areas were being used as a pretext to occupy government land illegally.
Earlier in the week, a protest march under the banner of the Sanyukt Hindu Sangharsh Samiti took place to demand cancellation of an FIR against six youths on the charge of disrupting 'namaaz' on government land.
The protesters gathered at the Kamla Nehru Park at around 10 am and marched to the Mini Secretariat, where they handed over a memorandum to the Additional Deputy Commissioner R P Singh.
Earlier on April 26 the Gurugram police had arrested six youths in connection with threatening members of the Muslim community and preventing them from offering namaaz on April 20. But on April 29 all the arrested accused granted bail on technical ground.