Man offers namaz on road outside CM’s secretariat; arrested
LUCKNOW: A man created a scene outside the high security CM’s secretariat on Friday evening by offering namaz in the middle of the road with a knife tucked in his waist and also raised slogans against PM Narendra Modi.
At the same moment, chief minister Yogi Adityanath was presiding over a meeting of senior officials inside the building.
Taking serious note of the incident, SSP Lucknow Kalanidhi Naithani suspended two constables present on the spot on charges of negligence and for allowing the man to offer namaz in middle of the road.
He also ordered to register an FIR against the man in the matter.
The city police traced the man within a few hours of the incident and arrested him. The man was identified as an Aishbagh resident Rafiq Ahmad.
Traffic movement on the busy road outside the Annexe came to a standstill for around 20 minutes till the time Ahmad was offering namaz. During this period, security personnel of the CM’s secretariat as well as other police personnel including traffic cops remained mute spectators. Several senior bureaucrats were present in the building at the time of incident. The entire incident was recorded by electronic media journalists.
The CM’s secretariat is a highsecurity building and a large contingent of police force is always deployed there.
Even entry to the building is strictly regulated through entry passes.
After offering namaz, the man left the scene on his two-wheeler.
“The police personnel deployed at the chief minister’s secretariat said that the person started offering namaz, so they did not take any action or tried to forcibly remove him from the busy road,” said Hazratganj circle officer Abhay Mishra. He said the security around the secretariat had been intensified so that such incidents were not repeated.
“We are trying to ascertain the identity of the person by retrieving CCTV (closed circuit television) footage,” said Mishra hours before the man was identified as Rafiq Ahmad, a resident of Aishbagh.