The Sanyunkt Hindu Sangharsh Samiti, a congolmeration of several district units of right-wing organisations, on Monday renewed its threat to disrupt jumma namaz later this week in the city, if the administration allowed the Muslim community to hold prayers in open public spaces.
Holding a press conference, the Samiti’s executive member Vikram Yadav said that the local administration had broken their trust by allowing Muslim community to hold Friday prayers at 47 locations across the city and threatened to disrupt prayer congregations at public places this week.
“We held meetings with the administation twice and told them to restrict the number of public places for namaz to just five. But they allowed them to hold namaz at 47 locations under the police security. Our activists also went around on Friday and found that the prayers were, in fact, held at 100 locations. We will not allow this to happen this week,” said Mr. Yadav.
Mr. Yadav said that the administration should treat all equally, adding that allowing a community to hold prayers under security cover was not acceptable. He said the Samiti had already intiated meetings with the local villagers on the matter.
Akhil Bharatiya Sant Parishad’s national convenor, Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati has threatened to self-immolate outside Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s official residence in Chandigarh on May 20, if the administration allowed the Muslims to hold prayers in Hindu-dominated areas under security cover.
Self-immolation
“Now I am not left with any other method to protest. I would go the Chief Minister’s residence along with the saints and commit self-immolation,” said Mr. Saraswati. He added that the saints had given their blood and sweat for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Mr. Khattar and could not allow the Muslims to caputre the entire country.
Mr. Yadav said that they did not see much point in meeting the district administration again in this regard. “We will not go to them for a meeting on our own. Still if we get an invitation from the administration, we might consider,” he said.
Deputy Commissioner, Gurugram, Vinay Pratap Singh, in a written statement, said: “The district administration has taken cognisance of the threats and is commited to provide security to people offering namaz on coming days. No person will be allowed to take law in their hands. Administration is ready to discuss issue with all groups.”
