Right-wing pressure on Gurduwaras: Gurgaon Muslims didn't offer prayer at their space

Gurgaon: The Muslim community, who was offered spaces for Friday prayer in Gurgaon due to persisting right-wing threat of disturbance, had offered Friday prayer at Akshay Yadav's vacant shop at Sector 12.

The Gurgaon Muslim Council decided not to offer Friday prayer this week at the premises of five gurdwaras after understanding the pressure on them by the right-wing. A committee overseeing five gurdwaras had offered the Muslim community their space to offer Namaz.

Former Rajya Sabha MP Mohammad Adeeb, quoted by The Indian Express, said that "When the gurdwara offered their premises, radicals pressured them. Last night, we got to know of this and realised the gurdwara was under pressure. They initially said we could do namaz in a nearby school. But if there is mischief… the public will be at the gurdwara. We told them we won't inconvenience them. So, we went to thank them after the namaz."

In a statement, Altaf Ahmad of the Gurgaon Muslim Council said, "Since yesterday, members of right-wing groups were using condemnable tactics to mount pressure on the Committee of the Gurdwara to stop Muslims from offering Jumma namaz… Since today was a big festival of the Sikh community, a huge rush of devotees was expected and we didn't want to jeopardise security. Hence, the committee of Gurdwara Sahib and Gurgaon Muslim Council took a decision this morning to not offer namaz in the gurdwara this week."

According to police, some of the people at Sector 37 disturbed the Namas at a playground who insisted that they wanted to play cricket at the site. Police at the spot took them to Sector 10 police station and discussed the matter. The protesters are learnt to have told police that they would not allow namaz at the site from next week.