Namaz disrupted again as protesters hold event to ‘mourn chopper crash victims’

Raghav, who also organised a “havan” at the site a fortnight ago “in memory of the 26/11 terror attack martyrs”, said: “Every week, we are going to hold some event here. Our earlier plan was to have a bhandara (community meal) here, but an elderly person from our village died yesterday, so we did not deem it appropriate. This is the only open space available in the village for community events. We have made it clear in recent weeks that we shall not allow namaz here in the open.”

Some of the protesters carried a poster with photos of those who died in the chopper crash.

An event to pay homage to CDS Bipin Rawat and the others who lost their lives in the IAF chopper crash was organised at the site where Namaz is offered, in Gurgaon on Friday. (Express Photo: Amit Mehra)

Pramod Singh Raghav, secretary, Rashtrawadi Janlok Party, said, “We are marking our protest against the unauthorised way in which namaz is being held.”

At 1.15 pm, as a group of Muslims arrived to offer prayers, they were coerced into leaving by the protesters after arguments, amid police deployment.

At Sector 44, in a public park, a group, including many affiliated with the Sanyukt Hindu Sangharsh Samiti, did not allow Friday prayers.

Arish, who works with an insurance company, said, “As we were about to pray, a group of men asked us to leave. Namaz has been offered here since 2008. If people have issues, they should go to the administration. How can they go from place to place and disrupt prayers? The Constitution gives us the right to practice our religion.”

Sohail Khan, who had come to pray at Sector 44, said, “It is our fundamental right to pray. I have been praying here for three years; it was never an issue.”

Amit Hindu, who was among 26 people arrested on October 29 for attempting to disrupt namaz, said, “At Sector 29 also, a group of people were offering namaz. We went to the park and politely asked them to leave.”

Altaf Ahmad, spokesperson, Gurgaon Muslim Council, said, “Muslims of Gurgaon are forced to offer namaz in the open as the HSVP (Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran) has not allocated land to us. The Waqf Board and administration have not been able to get Waqf properties back from encroachers for a long time. Now, the CM has said the 37 approved sites need to be re-worked between the administration and Muslim community. We request him to instruct HSVP to allocate us land in multiple sectors to build multi-storey mosques and that shall be the end of the namaz row.”