Citizen Forum Seeks Police Action Against Hindutva Group for Disrupting Namaz in Gurugram

New Delhi, 04 Oct 2021 [Fik/News Sources]: A citizens forum from across the faiths in Gurgaon have written a letter to the police demanding action against members of Hindu rightwing outfit  Bharat Mata Vahini’s after they threatened to disrupt Friday congregational prayers of Muslims.

On Thursday, a delegation of Gurgaon  Ekta manch Manch met the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Headquarters) Aastha Modi and raised their concern on threats over Namaz.

Altaf Ahmad, a Gurgaon resident, who was an active member of the forumsaid that the group apprised the police of the threats through a letter.

“We have been observing that Bharat Mata Vahini and its members have been showing up at the namaaz locations, intimidating Imams and using provocative and hurtful language in a planned attempt to disrupt prayers and provoke violence. Their latest attempt was on 24th September at Sector 47, opposite the Vigilance Office, which is on the administration’s list of namaaz sites,” said the Manch in its letter to the Gurgaon police.

The group said that it works to keep Gurugram a city “held together by peace, care and justice for all those who have chosen to live here”.

The threats from Bharat Mata Vahini had first emerged in 2018 when the outfit demanded a ban on Friday prayers in spaces outside mosques. Then the issue subsided. In April that year,  in one instance six men were arrested after a group of people attempted to shut down prayer  at Sector 53 on April 20.

“During covid lockdown, since the congregational prayers would not take place there was not any provocation from the outfit either,” said Altaf.

But this March, Atlaf said,  the outfit surfaced again and resorted to “unlawful acts” to  force Muslims to stop holding  Friday  prayer at Sector 39 and 40 .

“This has emboldened the group considerably and they have been regularly issuing warnings via social media to Muslim residents of Gurugram with threats to continue disrupting the Jumma namaaz,” the letter said.

The outfit uses the bogus fear of land grab by Muslims by setting up mosques  to mobilise the supporters. The letter accuses them of using abusive language against Muslims.

 “This is creating anxiety among Muslims with regards to their safety and security. There is no place for such behavior in a secular and democratic country like ours. We believe that an FIR has already been filed against the leaders of Bharat Mata Vahini in the past, and we request appropriate legal action as per CrPC be taken in order to protect our Constitutional values, as well as to ensure there is no breakdown in law and order,” the citizens forumdemanded.

Altaf said that Muslims offer prayers in these  spaces because there are not as many mosques to accommodate everyone on Friday.

The Gurugram police first posted a tweet saying that prayer spaces have been designated by mutual understanding among communities and urged people to maintain peace and communal harmony. However, garden variety rightwing trolls slammed the police afer which the tweet was deleted.

“Some residents arrived at the site for disruption of prayers. They said they don’t want the prayers to be conducted in the open here. We informed them that this site is among the list of designated sites. We have asked the residents that if they have any concerns, they should form a committee of five representatives and flag their concerns to the district administration officials in the coming week to discuss the future course of action. The namaz was offered peacefully here today,” Aman Yadav, assistant commissioner of police (ACP), Sadar, was quoted by Indian Express as saying about the incident on this Friday.