No more namaz in open, demand Gurgaon outfits

Gurgaon, May 01: Many outfits, coming together under Sanyukt Hindu Sangharsh Samiti, have demanded that the case against six men for disrupting namaz be withdrawn. They also called for a city-wide ban on offering namaz in the open, said a report in The Indian Express. The six men had disrupted namaz being offered on a vacant plot in Sector 53 of Gurgaon on April 20.
In their protest on Monday, the outfits also threatened to come out on the streets again on Friday, May 4, to make sure nobody offered namaz in the open. About 50 protesters gathered at Kamla Nehru Park before marching to Mini Secretariat where they submitted a memorandum to deputy Commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh addressed to Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar.
Their letter alleged that the vacant land was being used for namaz so that it could eventually be illegally occupied. The environment was being spoilt by chanting of slogans of ‘Pakistan zindabad’ and “Hindustan murdabad’,” they alleged. “When some patriotic youth stopped them from doing this, police conducted a one-sided investigation. Does chanting ‘Vande Matram’ and ‘Jai Shri Ram’ come in the ambit of offence that the youth were arrested?” they were quoted in media as having said in the letter. “Permission should only be given in those places where the strength of this population is more than 50 percent, otherwise there will continue to be a possibility of peace being obstructed,” the letter added.
Those who have been gathering at the spot for namaaz for the past ten years denied the allegations. “We don’t even talk to each other when reading the namaaz; chanting slogans is out of the question. These are false allegations,” said Wajid Khan, who heads the Nehru Yuva Sangathan Welfare Society Charitable Trust, and was the complainant in the case that led to six arrests.
Meanwhile, the protesting outfits were in an unrelenting mood. “We requested the district administration to declare a ban on reading namaz in the open. However, we intend to form teams and keep an eye on the city this Friday to ensure worshippers are not allowed to offer prayers in the open, on government land, illegally,” said Abhishek Gaur, district president of the Bajrang Dal, one of the protesting outfits.