Crowds of protestors many reportedly from right-wing groups shouted ‘Jai Shri Ram‘ slogans and disrupted Friday prayers in a Gurgaon locality.
Police were deployed in large numbers in Sector 12-A; around 30 protesters were detained. After vociferous protests earlier this month in Sector 12-A and 47, police acted quickly today.
“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) have taken swift action today,” Gurgaon SDM Anita Chaudhary told NDTV.
“People have offered namaz in 37 designated places (and) full protection will be given to people who are offering namaz,” she said.
Visuals from today’s incident showed a small group of people (almost none wearing face masks) milling about, holding up cardboard signs and shouting “band karo, band karo” (Stop it, stop it”).
Another video showed a few of them being led away by the police; a large number of cops can be seen in the clip, and police barricades have been set up all around.
This is the third straight week daily prayers have been disrupted; last week Muslims praying on private property, also in Sector 12-A, had to deal with a crowd shouting ‘Jai Shri Ram‘.
Earlier this month Haryana Chief Minister ML Khattar (speaking after the Sector 47 protests) said everyone had a right to pray, but also that “those offering prayers should not block road traffic”.
“No one should hurt sentiments nor should anyone disrupt prayers… and if they are praying at designated sites, as suggested by district administration, that should not be disrupted,” he said.