The district administration of Kolar has launched an inquiry after a group of Sangh parivar activists allegedly barged into a school in Mulbagal town to protest against students being allowed to offer Friday namaz in the building.
The incident came to light on Sunday when a purported video clip of the activists shouting at the officials of the school emerged.
A source from the local administration said one of the teachers of Mulbagal Someshwara Palaya Bale Changappa Government Kannada Model Higher Primary School had allowed Muslim students to offer Friday prayers since December 2021 to save them the trouble of going out of the campus.
The source rebutted Sangh parivar allegations that Friday prayers had been going on at the school for over two months and said the namaz was held only for two weeks.
While students have always been allowed to go to a nearby mosque to pray, some of them have been skipping the afternoon classes after the prayers. Therefore, the teacher decided to allow them to pray in one of the classrooms, the source said.
School headmistress Uma Devi pleaded ignorance about the prayers in the same video clip and said she would not allow any prayers henceforth.
“I was not here when it happened. I rushed back when I got a call about the prayer. We will not allow this in the future since all students are equal before us,” a worried-looking Devi is heard saying in the video clip.
Deputy commissioner Umesh Kumar and block education officer Girijeshwari Devi ordered separate inquiries into the incident. Deputy director of public instruction Revanna Siddappa and his team held a meeting with Girijeshwari Devi on Monday over the issue. He is expected to submit a report to the deputy commissioner.
Siddappa could not be reached for comments as he failed to answer calls from this newspaper.
The state has been witnessing several such incidents involving Sangh parivar groups. A group of eight Muslim students have been denied entry to classrooms in a college in Udupi as they insisted on their right to wear hijab.
The girls have been spending time outside classrooms in Government Pre-University College since December 31 when they were first told to remove their headscarves if they wanted to attend classes.
Last week, police arrested four Bajrang Dal activists for murdering a Muslim youth named Sameer Shahapur and injuring his friend Shamser Khan Pathan in Nargund in Gadag district. The communally sensitive town had witnessed several skirmishes between men from the two religious groups.
Police in Belgaum had in October arrested 10 men from little-known Sree Ram Sene Hindustan for killing a Muslim youth who refused to back down from his relationship with a Hindu girl. The girl’s parents were among those arrested in the hate crime.
There has also been a spate of attacks on churches and prayer halls of several Christian denominations in the state ever since the BJP government began harping on its anti-conversion bill to stop illegal conversions.
The Assembly had in December passed The Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Bill, 2021, with provisions of prison terms of up to 10 years for conversions by coercion or inducement.
