The deadly attack on the Anjuman Jama Masjid in Gurugram’s Sector 57, in the heart of the Millennium City — which left the Imam dead and a staff member seriously injured — gripped local residents with a sense of fear and disbelief. A few Muslim families have left the area to stay with relatives in Delhi, while others have moved to their hometowns until the situation returns to normal.
Hakim Khan, a civil contractor who lives in the area, said that the attack on the mosque and the murder of the Imam — despite Section 144 being in force in the district — had created a sense of fear. “I happened to pass this way around 11 p.m. and found that four or five policemen were sitting outside the mosque. I was sleeping at home when I got a call around 2 a.m. about the attack on the mosque. I rushed to this place to find that there was a lot of chaos and a fire tender was parked near it,” said Mr. Khan.
The shops were open and everyone was busy with their routine life, but there was a sense of fear, especially among the minorities, that they might be targeted, he added.
People retrieve their belongings after communal clashes, near Ambedkar Chowk at Sohna, in Gurugram district, on August 1, 2023. | Photo Credit: PTI
‘Sense of lawlessness’
Rakesh Sihag, another local resident, said that it was not about any community, but the sense of lawlessness. Mr. Sihag, a retired professor, said that violence was not acceptable to any peace-loving resident.
A Muslim resident of Sector 57, who did not want to be named, said that he and some of his friends had decided to move to safer places. “We thought it was not safe to stay in the area for the time being. We have elderly parents with medical needs, and kids going out to play. I moved to Delhi to stay with my relatives. Three of my friends left for their hometowns in Faizabad, Kashmir and Dehradun,” said the 48-year-old, working as a consultant in the corporate sector.
The Anjuman Jama Masjid, the only mosque on government-allocated land in New Gurugram, caters to almost half of the city’s municipal area spread across the south and east zones, and a large section of the floating population who commute daily to the Millennium City for work.
‘Panic-stricken’
Mubin Khan, 40, who works as an optometrist at Dayal Centre in Sector 15, said that the communal clashes had scared him. A resident of Patel Nagar, he said that his neighbourhood was peaceful, but he had a sense of fear deep inside.
Food stalls, vandalized and partially burnt during communal clashes, lie by the side of a street in Sohna near Nuh in Haryana. | Photo Credit: AP
Altaf Ahmad, co-founder of the Gurgaon Nagrik Ekta Manch, said that the attack on a mosque in the middle of the city was “unthinkable”, and a “new low” in the growing atmosphere of intolerance in the city. “My phone has not stopped ringing since the incident occurred, as friends and acquaintances from our Muslim community are extremely scared and panic-stricken. They feel that a mob can come anytime and run them down as it happened with the Imam of the mosque. I personally know dozens of people who have returned back to their native places — including businessmen, those working with MNCs, and also daily wagers — after this attack, fearing for their safety,” said Mr. Ahmad.
