BJYM blocks street to protest Kolkata roads' closure for namaz

Kolkata: Over 100 members of the Bharatiya Janata Party's youth wing squatted on the street of the Bally Khal area in Howrah district and recited 'Hanuman Chalisa' on Tuesday night in a bid to put pressure on the state administration to prevent Muslims from offering Friday namaz on the roads.

"Roads should be used for transport, not religious prayers. To protest against the Bengal government's appeasement policy, we blocked the road for 10 minutes in Howrah and recited Hanuman Chalisa. We will continue this on the main roads near Hanuman temples every Tuesday if the state government fails to take any action," Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha's (BJYM) Howrah district president Om Prakash Singh told IANS.

Stating that every community has their places for offering religious prayers and that should be respected, he said under the Mamata Banerjee government a new trend had started in Bengal. "An important highway like the Grand Trunk Road in Howrah is blocked for 1.5 hours for Friday namaz every week. We have informed the nearby police station about inconvenience caused to people but no action was taken," Singh said.

Stressing that the initiative is not against religious practices of Muslims, he said the state administration must implement laws equally for all.

"Our programme is not against the Muslim community. They have the right to celebrate the festivity. Let all the roads in Bengal be blocked on festivals, like Eid and Muharram. But the roads should not be blocked every week like this. If government allows a community to do so, we also have the right to do the same," he said.