For the third Friday in Ggm, locals stopped from offering Namaz at designated land in Sector-47

Gurugram: For the third Friday in a row, locals and Hindu extremist right-wing organisations have managed to forcibly prevent Muslims from performing Friday prayers on an empty patch of government land in Sector-47, which had been approved by authorities for this purpose. The residents and activists claim their protest is against "systemic encroachment of public land".

An issue that was raised over three weeks back has now grown even louder with a large number of fringe outfits also joining in to stop the Friday prayers.

This Friday, a large number of residents came out to voice their displeasure during the prayers. For making sure that there was no tension between the two religious communities, the Gurugram Police has allocated a patch of land 100 metres away from the earlier designated site.

The Muslim devotees who had come for the Friday prayers accepted the proposal and prayed in the new area allocated to them.

For several angry protestors, however, the demand still remains of stopping the Friday prayers on the vacant government land of Sector-47.

This is not the first time protests have erupted against Friday namaz being offered in public. In 2018, a huge row was created when large protests erupted on the same issue.

Back then, the 100 sites in Gurugram where Friday prayers were allowed had been reduced to 37 with consent from representatives of both the religious communities. The Sector-47 site is one of the 37 approved sites left in the city.

At one point of time this Friday, as Namaz was being offered, several protesters started singing bhajans and kirtans and chanting religious slogans.

The deployment of a large number of police officials at the site, however, ensured that the tension between the two communities did not result in any form of violence.

Most of the residents claim that allowing Friday prayers to be organised in open areas is resulting in incidents of encroachments - which is purportedly increasing crime.

"There is concern among residents that this vacant site where Friday Namaz is being held is being systematically encroached. We have had a word with representatives of both the communities and are hoping for peaceful resolution. I must commend that both communities have been cooperative and have expressed their dissent in a peaceful manner," said Inspector Aman Yadav ACP (Sadar).

"There is fear that there is systematic encroachment of land that is taking place which will not be allowed. There are also complaints of an increase of crime in the area. If there are religious sites and mosques that are available why Friday prayers on open sites is being allowed," said Dinesh Bharti, who said he is from the Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Samiti.

Dinesh was detained by Gurugram Police for creating obstructions for Muslim devotees at the Sector-47 site before and later released.