Govind Parashar, leader of the lesser-known outfit, Rashtriya Bajrang Dal, said that Hindus will perform “puja... Read More

AGRA: After local Muslims offered namaz at a mosque inside the Taj Mahal complex to defy a recent ban order of the ASI, right wing activists on Friday threatened to offer ‘puja’ at the 17th century mausoleum if action was not taken against them. Local Muslims and members of Taj Mahal Masjid Intezamia Committee had defied the ASI’s recent order barring Muslims from offering namaz at the mosque on all days except Fridays.

The right wing outfits, which claim that the Unesco world heritage monument was originally built on a Shiv temple and refer to it as Tejomahalaya, condemned the decision of the local Muslims to offer namaz there and sought action against them.

Govind Parashar, leader of the lesser-known outfit, Rashtriya Bajrang Dal , said that Hindus will perform “puja at the Tejomahalaya” if no action is taken against the “violators” of the ASI ban.

He told TOI that he was jailed for seven days for giving a call for offering ‘arti’ at “Tejomahalaya” in 2017, but no action is being taken against those who defied the ASI ban.

Taj Mahal Masjid Intezamia Committee president Syed Ibrahim Zaidi said that Muslims had been offering prayers at the mosque for the past 400 years and the laws governing the monument came into existence only in 1958.

“If we have violated any rule, legal action should be taken against us,” he said, adding that the right wing activists were unnecessarily making a political issue out of it.

“We will send legal notices to all the people who have accused us of violating the Supreme Court order,” said Zaidi, adding that they will continue to offer namaz at the mosque on all days as “the apex court had never passed such an order”.

