Friday prayers in police cordon as locals protest

GURUGRAM: Members of the Muslim community offered prayers amid heavy police presence, shouting of slogans, and singing of bhajans (religious songs) in Gurugram’s Sector 47 on Friday afternoon, as local residents continued their protest against offering Namaz in open spaces for the fourth consecutive week.

The police shifted the site of the Friday prayers around 100 metres from the original designated spot to avoid any confrontation between the protesters and the devotees. But local residents, many of whom were Hindu, said they wanted prayers to completely stop.

Around 100 policemen and policewomen were deployed at Sector 47 to prevent the protesters, who were singing bhajans and shouting slogans, from reaching the prayer site. Heated arguments were also witnessed between the police and protesters, who insisted on trying to get to the spot where prayers were being offered. The police also did not allow reporters to reach the prayer site and cordoned off the area.

Police said protesters gathered at the parking site around 12.30pm. They started singing bhajans while walking towards the prayer site but were stopped by the police. They also carried placards demanding a ban on namaz in open spaces and shouted slogans against authorities for failing to stop Friday prayers in their sector.

Sunil Yadav, president of the Sector 47 residents’ welfare association (RWA), said that they wanted the authorities to stop Friday prayers in their sector as a majority of the devotees did not belong to the area. “We have held a discussion with district administration and suggested sites near Subash Chowk and Marble Market, which have little to no residential population. If the authorities check the identity cards and Aadhaar cards of the people offering prayers in Sector 47, they would not find a single local as all are outsiders,” said Yadav.

In 2018, the controversy of holding

Friday prayers in public places resulted in a major dispute, after which the police and administration identified 37 sites where Friday prayers were allowed.

The RWA president said the list of designated places for Friday prayers, including the Sector 47 site, finalised in 2018 has been submitted to the police. He claimed that the list mentions that the order was meant for a single day.

Aman Yadav, ACP, Sadar, Gurugram confirmed that the residents submitted a list of places but its veracity needs to be checked. “In the meeting held earlier, this list was not shared,” he said.