Muslims in the communally sensitive Purola town of Uttarakhand did not gather for namaz in public places on Id following a diktat from the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), days after some Muslim shopkeepers left the town against the backdrop of threats.
Station house officer Ashok Chakravarty said the decision to not offer namaz in public places was taken by the community itself after a meeting was held on Wednesday to maintain peace.
VHP working president Virendra Rawat, however, said the outfit had asked Muslims not to gather for namaz in public places.
“We had no intention to hurt the religious sentiments of anyone. We only asked them not to offer namaz collectively in public places.Can anyone be stopped from offering namaz in theprivacy of their homes?” Rawat said.
The break in tradition drew a sharp reaction from Muslim organisations in Dehradun. They said the administration had failed and that there was political backing for the decision not to allow namaz in the open.
“If there was no idgah in Purola, people should have been allowed to gather at the mosque and offer prayers,” Muslim SevaSangathan (MSS) president Naim Ahmad said in Dehradun.
“Not letting them gather for namaz anywhere reinforces the fact that Muslims will continue to be treated as second-class citizens in this secular and culturally diverse country,” Ahmad added.
“It is the failure of the administration. Such a thing could not have happened without political patronage to divisive forces,” he said.
The MSS is an organisation fighting for the rights of Muslims in Uttarakhand.
Ashraf, who runs a garments shop in Purola for the past 35 years, said what happened this Id had no precedent.
“No one in the 53 gram sabhas of Purola development block ever raised a finger at us and now we are being forced to offer namaz behind closed doors,” he said.
Ashraf, his son and father Vale Khan had left a day earlier for Sandra to offer namaz along with Gujjars, he said.
Purola found itself in the grip of communal tension days after two men allegedly tried to abduct a woman in an auto on May 26 but were thwarted by locals. The two men were arrested the next day.
Outfits like the VHP and the Bajrang Dal had termed the incident an instance of “love jihad”, stoking prolonged tension in the town that led to the imposition of prohibitory orders, declared to prevent a Mahapanchayat by Right-wing Hindu outfits.
The following fortnight saw posters appearing on shops owned or run by Muslim traders threatening them with consequences if they did not shut their shops and leave the town.
Frightened Muslim traders kept their shutters down and some of them left the town.
