Gurugram: Even as residents of Sector 47 in Gurugram agreed to defer their protests against Friday prayers held by local Muslims on a designated plot of land — residents of Sector 12 in the city this Friday erupted in protest — disrupting Namaz for the fifth Friday in a row in Gurugram by chanting "Jai Shree Ram", "Bajrang Bali ki Jai" and "Bharat Mata ki Jai" during their prayers.
Residents of Sector 47 in Gurugram have for the last four weeks — disrupted Friday prayers in their area — taking disruptions to the extent of playing Hindu prayers and bhajans on loudhailers deliberately while the Muslims' prayer was in progress. Several members of right-wing extremist organisations such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal also protested with residents there.
Similarly, this Friday in Sector-12 VHP and Bajrang Dal supporters had arrived to protest against the Muslim devotees offering prayer on the plot of land. In order to prevent any law and order situation, heavy police were deployed there. However, this Friday, the Namaz at Sector-47 was held without disruptions under the guard of police officials.
The residents in Sector 12 claimed that the land where prayers were being held was private property and had been approved for prayers only temporarily. They claimed the devotees praying there were not local and cast far-reaching suspicions on them.
"We have given a written complaint to SHO on ensuring that identity cards of all the devotees who should come over here should be checked to ensure that there are criminals who are present. The residents are also miffed that if there are enough religious places for Muslims to offer their Namaz
why do they have to do it in open land against the wishes of thousands of residents," said Kulbhushan Bharadwaj who is spearheading the protests at Sector-12 A.
"We were able to convince the residents to make their protests peaceful and the residents complied with the norms. We will now try to find a peaceful solution to this matter," said Inspector Rajbir, a Gurugram Police officer who was handling the crowds in Sector 12.
Responding to the Namaz Row, Kishan pal Gurjar Member of Parliament (Faridabad) who was in Gurugram on Friday stated that prayers should be only at specific sites with the consent of the public at large. He also urged that prayers of any faith once given consent should not be disrupted.