The Jumme ki Namaz being held ona side road off MG Road in Gurugram was disrupted by Sanghis from Sayunkt Hindu Sangharsh Samiti on the May 4th. The incident is similar to the one that took place on April 27th in Sector 53 of Gurugram. Seven hundred Muslims reading their Namaz were disrupted by six men from the same Hindutva group on April 20th.

These six men were arrested due to the video that went viral showing them chasing away people offering Namaz. However, they were granted bail the next day as a result of the immediate bail request by the Samiti, as told to The Tribune by the district president of Bajrang Dal, Abhishek Gaur. "We are happy that our demand of immediate bail for the men has been met but we want withdrawal of case and also a ban on offering namaz in open spaces without any official permission or approval," said Gaur.

There was a protest march under the banner of the Sanyukt Hindu Sangharsh Samiti that was taken out in Gurugram on Monday to demand cancellation of an FIR against six youths on the charge of disrupting ‘namaz’ on government land.The protesters gathered at the Kamla Nehru Park and marched to the Mini Secretariat, where they handed over a memorandum to the additional deputy commissioner for forwarding it to Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar.

Mahavir Bhardwaj, who led the protest, told the gathering that it was wrong to take refuge of religion to encroach upon land. He demanded that the government ban offering of namaz without prior permission. He also emphasised the need to identify the “Bangladeshis and Rohingyas among the Muslims”. “Crimes against women are on the rise across the country and it is difficult to establish the identity of these men offering namaz in large numbers near the village every Friday. It is not known whether they are Rohingyas, Bangladeshis or Mewatis. It is a potential threat to the girls and women of the village,” said Gurugram Shiv Sena president Gautam Saini. The protesters also raised slogans outside the office of the Commissioner of Police.

The Samiti submitted a Memorandum to Haryana Deputy Commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh, demanding that Namaz be held in the areas which have Muslims as more than 50% of the population. "Efforts have been made in the past to vitiate atmosphere by pro-Pakistan slogans after prayers. When some youths stopped them from doing so, police took one-sided action and sent six of them to jail. A large number of these Muslims are from Bangladesh and don't possess proper identification documents." said the memorandum submitted by the protesters.

Talking to The Citizen Saba Dewan, an independent filmmaker, said, “We live very close to the area where the incident happened. Gurgaon has been in tension for a while now. These Hindutva groups have been intimidating Friday namazis. Gurgaon is also one place where we do not have enough mosques. There has been an incident in Wazirabad, a village in Gurgaon where namazis were attacked on Friday and were told to disperse when these groups started intimidating. What I got to know was that the men who were intimidating were arrested but that changed. They came out on bail and put in a demand with the police that Muslims shouldn’t be allowed to offer Namaz in public places. So I knew that there would be some tension, with this being the next Friday after that. We were in the house and around the time of namaz, we heard this commotion outside. My husband, Rahul and I, ran down to check what happened. It was in the service lane of the main MG Road. You should also know that in Gurgaon the reason why Friday namaz is held in public places is because there are very few mosques. Where would the Muslims go for namaz? The lane where the namaz was taking place was not being used by anyone. So it’s not like it was creating any traffic issues.”

Talking about the incident, she further adds, “By the time we reached, they had already arrived since we heard “Jai Sri Ram” slogans. It all seemed pre-planned. My husband was ahed of me and he told me that there were some 30 odd men there. They came, they flexed their muscles and the police were already there. But they did not arrest any one of them. Nothing was done to them. They disrupted the namaz and zoomed off in their cars. In fact, the police told the namazis that they can’t carry on with the namaz and should leave.”

“This seemed like a very well-rehearsed, well-planned operation. They were in connivance with the police. They had their assurance that the police would not arrest them. They came, they shouted their slogans, did their intimidating tactics. Although they did not physically assault anyone. Although it did give the police an excuse to stop the namaz and tell the namazis to leave. The police was there to ensure law and order and the namazis weren’t disrupting the order. It was the groups who were intimidating, they should have been arrested. They went off in front of us. I think the motive was to intimidate the Muslims in this area and simultaneously provoke a reaction from them. But till now, the Muslims have shown remarkable restraint. They way we got treated today it was shocking and shameful. But we kept quiet and dispersed. It is important to stress that all the aggression and intimidation is coming from the Hindutva groups. In this case, they even had protection to do it.”

In response to these attacks a petition has been filed and sent to the District Commissioner of Gurgaon, Haryana.

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