A police officer in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut on Friday warned Muslim worshippers not to offer namaz on roads, saying that the passports of those who violate the guideline would be cancelled, The Times of India reported.
“There should be no namaz on roads, and if someone is still found flouting the rule, their passports will be cancelled, among other actions, against these violators,” Meerut Senior Superintendent of Police Avinash Pandey was quoted by the newspaper as saying.
Pandey said that there are 544 mosques and 146 eidgahs in Meerut district and the management committees of all of them have agreed to comply with the rules.
The senior superintendent of police said that while there was no provision on the cancellations of passports, the police could “conduct inquiry against the violators about their criminal antecedents, which can lead to the cancellation”, The Times of India reported.
Pandey later told the newspaper that he had not said anything new, but had only reiterated orders from previous years.
The Meerut senior superintendent of police’s statement came days after Sambhal Circle Officer Kuldeep Kumar triggered a controversy by saying at a peace meeting that those bothered by the conflict in West Asia should go to Iran and fight there, The Indian Express reported.
In a video that was widely shared on social media, Kumar was heard saying: “I am saying that many people seem to be itching over this issue – there is a conflict going on between Iran and Israel, yet they are trying to poke their noses into it. If it bothers you so much, then go ahead and board a plane.”
“When the plane goes to bring back the Indians stranded in Iran, you can sit in it, go there, fight from Iran’s side, and then come back,” he had said.
Kumar had said that no slogans should be shouted or placards held against any country during Friday prayers, and that global conflicts were for the countries involved to resolve, according to The Indian Express.
The Sambhal superintendent of police has sought an explanation from the officer for his statement, the newspaper reported.
Commenting on Kumar’s statement, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi said that the Constitution guarantees freedom of expression, and asked whether the police would make such statements about pro-Israel protests.
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