GURUGRAM: Meat shops in the old city’s Jama Masjid market opened on Friday after police deployed a PCR van there to prevent vigilante groups from shutting them down. But in other parts of the city, most meat sellers preferred to keep their shops closed, either voluntarily or from fear of vandalism by a couple of local outfits that has warned against meat sales during Navratri .

One of the vigilante groups had claimed to be a local unit of the Shiv Sena, but the Maharashtra-based political party said on Friday it had nothing to do with the people who had shut down meat shops and did not support their demand. Senior Shiv Sena functionary Sanjay Raut told TOI in Mumbai, “The party does not want to talk about who should eat what. We are not involved with the incident that happened in Gurgaon.”

Another Sena functionary said that the party had also opposed the Mumbai municipal corporation’s decision in 2015 to shut meat shops for four days in during a Jain community religious fast. Sena had then set up chicken shops as a symbolic protest, said the functionary.

But the Gurgaon outfit remained undeterred and said it would restart its “drive” on Monday, when the MCG election was over and the rain had ceased. “Half of the shops were anyway closed. We closed only the other half. How can you imagine someone going to the temple passing by shops where meat is hung? We will ensure nobody sees such a sight during Navratri,” said Rituraj Agarwal, who claims to be the state media representative of the ‘Shiv Sena’.

Several meat shops in the city indeed shut down during Navratri because they don’t want to sell meat during Navratri. But, as the district administration said on Thursday, that’s a personal choice. It had promised security to meat sellers who felt threatened.

“Around 50 to 60 men came on Thursday evening and threatened us,” said a meat seller at Jama Masjid market. We opened today only because of police presence. Cops said, ‘tum dukan kholo, hum khade hain’ (you open your shops, we are here).”

“We have been in this market for 60 years. Never has this happened before. But this is the second time this year that we have been forced to close our shops,” said another meat seller.

Police said no meat seller had filed a complaint yet. “Nobody can stop them from opening their shops. If the shopkeepers feel threatened, they can seek police deployment and it will be immediately provided,” said Manish Sehgal (ACP).

(With inputs from Sujit Mahamulkar in Mumbai)

