A day ahead of the Muslim festival, the Uttarakhand administration has asked the Muslim community members to not celebrate Bakrid in the Badrinath area where one of the Char Dham shrines is situated. Instead, the Muslims have been asked to gather at the Joshimath area which is 45 km away from the temple town to offer Namaz and celebrate Eid al-Adha.
The Joshimath Police Station confirmed the development to OpIndia and said that there are around 100-150 Muslim labourers working in the area who have been asked to gather at Joshimath to celebrate their festival. “There are no local Muslims in the Badri area. All the other Muslim labourers, migrant workers, daily wagers, carpenters, etc will gather at Joshimath. The decision was taken by the head administration here,” said the police officer.
On asking about the development and links of this decision to Purola’s love jihad case, he said that these two were separate incidents and need not be linked. “The celebrations at Joshimath are for 150 Muslim migrant workers who will gather and offer Namaz on their festival,” he added.
Majority Muslims in Badrinath are carpeters, wage workers, migrant laborers
As per the report by Times of India, the decision by the administration was taken after the priest community, hotel associations and other firms involved in development works held a meeting at the Badrinath Police Station. The authorities in the presence of the Police are said to have taken the decision to avoid any communal controversy.
“The minority community members have given in writing that they have no objection to the proposal, and they all agreed to celebrate Bakrid at Joshimath,” BKTC (Badrinath Kedarnath Temple Committee) chief Ajendra Ajay was quoted as saying.
The majority of the Muslims in the Badrinath region work as migrant daily wage workers, carpenters, and plumbers on numerous construction projects in the area. They have been given leave beginning on Wednesday itself in order to guarantee their timely arrival at Joshimath.
Tensions in Uttarakhand after 3 cases of Love Jihad were reported
This reportedly comes weeks after a couple of Love Jihad cases were reported from Purola and Chamoli region of the state. On May 31, massive protests erupted in the Purola region after a two boys one of whom was a Muslim abducted a Hindu minor girl. The Muslim boy had trapped the girl in the love affair and had promised her of marriage. Later the Hindu residents in the region had demanded verification of ‘outsiders’ (most of whom are Muslims) residing in the city. Weeks after the incident, several Muslim shop owners left the place after Police began verification of outsiders.
On June 7, two Muslim youths attempted to elope with a minor Hindu girl in Gauchar town in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand. Gulzar alias Nitin (26) and Aslam (21) lured a 15-year-old Hindu girl and took her to a hotel on Tuesday, June 6. They told the hotel staff that the girl is the daughter of their maternal aunt. However, the hotel owner grew suspicious and informed the police about it. Meanwhile, one of the accused escaped along with the minor girl. The Hindu activists then had protested outside the Gauchar police station and had demanded action against the Muslim youths.
On June 18, two Muslim brothers from Bijnor in UP deliberately hid their real identity and posed as Hindus to trap two real sisters who are practising Hindus in Dehradun. Reportedly, the elder brother, Mohammad Salik, also raped a girl on the pretext of marriage. He had been working as a junior advocate in the Dehradun court for a year. Meanwhile, his younger brother is studying MBBS in Bangladesh.
To gain the trust of Hindu girls, the accused duo tied kalava, bad-mouthed Muslims, and even took the sisters to watch ‘The Kerala Story’. However, the elder brother got exposed while making an online payment to the landlord for a flat in Panditwadi, and slowly everything unravelled thereof.
