Muslims offer namaz at site near Bhojshala complex
A day after the Supreme Court granted permission, Muslims offered prayers on Friday at a site near the Bhojshala-Kamal Maula complex in Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh amid heavy deployment of police personnel.
The arrangements for the namaz at the site, survey number 612, near Bhojshala was selected by the Muslim community leaders during a meeting with the district administration.
A good number of devotees turned up for the Friday namaz for the first time after the Madhya Pradesh High Court ruled in May that the Bhojshala-Kamal Maula Mosque complex was a temple dedicated to Goddess Saraswati. The Supreme Court on Thursday permitted Muslims to offer Friday prayers at the premises of a dargah adjacent to the disputed Bhojshala complex. It directed the Madhya Pradesh Government to ensure that Muslims are allowed to offer namaz at the site between 1 and 3 pm on Friday.
Accordingly, the administration made necessary arrangements for the namaz, officials said.
The prayer time was set from 1 to 3 pm. Around 2.30 pm, more than 150 Muslims arrived for prayers, officials said. Although it was raining at that time, the worshippers offered their prayers, they said. A meeting was held prior to this between the district administration and the Muslim community. Barricades were erected around the Bhojshala complex for security purposes, the official said.
A large police force was deployed in and around Bhojshala as a precautionary measure. The prayers were offered at survey land number 612. Abdul Samad, a member of Kamal Maulana Welfare Society, representing the Muslim side, said, “We presented our demands before the Supreme Court. They listened to them with complete seriousness and issued an order directing us to offer namaz at the location adjoining the Kamal Maula Mosque.”
They specified survey numbers 611, 612, and 596. They instructed us to arrange and offer prayers within whichever survey numbers provided and make arrangements, he said. “By cooperating with the administration, we offered namaz on survey number 612 and relinquished survey number 611 so that no one’s sentiments or faith is hurt,” he said.
Additional Superintendent of Police Vijay Dawar said, “Discussions and dialogues have continuously being held with the Muslim community since Thursday evening. The decision was taken by the administration and the police department to conduct the namaz peacefully at the same place today.”
A police force of approximately 800 to 900 personnel was deployed to facilitate offering of namaz, including the Special Task Force (STF). In addition, a surveillance team was deployed in sensitive areas through CCTV to maintain peace and order in the city, he said. SDM Rajkumar Haldhar said, “The administration made excellent preparations as approximately 150 Muslim brothers offered namaz peacefully on survey number 612.”
Earlier, Dhar Collector Rajiv Ranjan Meena told reporters that all necessary administrative arrangements had been made for offering of namaz.
In May this year, the MP High Court, while ruling that the ancient site was a temple dedicated to Goddess Saraswati, had quashed a decades-old Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) order that had allowed the Muslim community to offer Friday prayers at the complex.
The ASI order of April 2003 had also restricted the right of Hindus to worship within the Bhojshala complex.
The division bench of Justices Vijay Kumar Shukla and Alok Awasthi, in a 242-page order, held that the religious character of the 11th-century monument had been established on the basis of scientific evidence, while clarifying that the Muslim side may approach the State Government for separate land in the district to construct a mosque.
However, Muslims moved the SC, which on Thursday permitted them to offer Friday prayers at the premises of a dargah adjacent to the disputed complex. Subsequently, community leaders and district administration chose survey number 612.
