No public namaaz in Uttarakhand's sensitive Purola town under VHP pressure

Under pressure from the Vishva Hindu Parishad, Muslims in the communally sensitive Purola town did not gather for namaaz in public places on Eid-ul-Adha.

Muslims living in Purola for generations had to go to other places like Sandra, about 30 km away from the hill town, and Vikas Nagar near Dehradun, to offer namaaz collectively.

The break in the tradition drew a sharp reaction from Muslim organisations in Dehradun which said such things went against the secular spirit of the Indian Constitution.

They termed it the failure of the administration and said such a thing could not have come to a pass if it did not political backing.

"If there was no Eidgah in Purola, people should have been allowed to gather at the mosque and offer prayers. Not letting them gather for namaaz anywhere reinforces the fact that Muslims will continue to be treated as second class citizens in this secular and culturally diverse country," Muslim Seva Sangathan president Naim Ahmad told PTI in Dehradun.

"It is the failure of the administration. Such a thing could not have happened without political patronage to divisive forces," he said.

MSS is an organisation fighting for the rights of Muslims in Uttarakhand.

Ashraf, who runs a garment shop in Purola for the past 35 years, what happened this Eid 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 namaaz behind closed doors," he said.

Ashraf, his son, and his father Vale Khan had left a day earlier for Sandra to offer namaaz along with Gujjars, he said.

Purola station house officer Ashok Chakravarty said the decision to not offer namaaz in public place was taken by the community itself after a meeting was held on Wednesday to "maintain peace."

VHP working president Virendra Rawat said the outfit had indeed asked Muslims to not gather for namaaz in public places.

"We had no intention to hurt the religious sentiments of anyone. We only asked them not to offer namaaz collectively in public places. Can anyone be stopped from offering namaaz in the privacy of their homes?" Rawat said.

Purola found itself in grip of communal tension days after two men allegedly tried to abduct a woman in an auto on May 26 but were thwarted in their attempt by some alert locals.

The two men were arrested the next day.

Hardline Hindutva outfits like the VHP and Bajrang Dal 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 even left the town.

Love jihad is a term used by right-wing activists alleging a conspiracy by Muslim men to lure Hindu women to convert to Islam through marriage.

The term however has no validity in the Indian penal law.