Gurugram: 30 detained for protesting against namaz in the open, FIR registered

Sanjay Yadav

Gurugram, October 29

The Gurugram police detained around 30 persons, who protested against namaz being offered in an open area in Sector 12 A. An FIR also has been registered against the protesters under precautionary sections of the IPC.

Made to feel out of place

It’s poor people who work in the market nearby and come here to pray for 15 minutes. They do not encroach or grab the land. We are being made to feel out of place, so we want the administration to officially give us the site and save us the torture. — A cleric

Admn should allot land to them

We put out legal and valid points to them last week so there should not be public prayers in this area. If the administration wants it to continue then they should legally allot them a land till then no namaz in public areas will be our motto. We had warned them a day prior but they again came for namaz. — Kulbhushan Bhardwaj, Advocate

It’s peaceful here

Everything is peaceful here. We have detained people who were here to disrupt namaz. We tried to negotiate with them over the last few weeks, but took swift action on Friday. — Anita Chaudhary, Gurugram SDM

The group led by advocate Kulbhushan Bhardwaj had also protested last Friday. They had issued an ultimatum against namaz being offered in the open today. They came shouting slogans and held placards that read “Gurugram administration, wake up from your sleep”. The police on the spot first tried to reason with the group consisting of Hindu outfit members but as they refused to listen they detained them and took them to the Bajghera police station. The detainees kept shouting that they were being targeted for opposing ‘land jihad’. heavy police deployment was seen across the city and namaz was offered at 37 sites. The members of the Muslim Community has moved the administration seeking allotment of land in Sector 12, be it the current site or some other place nearby for namaz on Fridays.

“It’s poor people who work in the market nearby and come here to pray for 15 minutes. They do not encroach or grab the land. We are being made to feel out of place, so we want the administration to officially give us the site and save us the torture,” said a cleric who conducted prayers.

“We put out legal and valid points to them last week so there should not be public prayers in this area. If the administration wants it to continue then they should legally allot them a land till then no namaz in public areas will be our motto. We had warned them a day prior but they again came for namaz ,” said the advocate.