As Ggm simmers, Muslims offers Friday namaz indoors

Friday prayers across Gurugram were largely offered by Muslims inside their homes or workplaces, as they stayed away from mosques and public spaces amid heightened tensions in the city rocked by communal violence earlier this week.

- Leena Dhankhar and Debashish Karmakar

GURUGRAM: All six public spaces authorised for namaz in Gurugram were deserted on Friday, after the city's Muslim council appealed to devotees a day ago to offer namaz behind closed doors.

Altaf Ahmad, spokesperson of the Gurgaon Muslim Council, added that the city's six mosques and eidgahs also saw few people turn up for prayers. "No one offered namaz at the designated open spots. Imams had already made appeals to the community to not reach mosques for namaz on Friday, because police apprehended trouble," he said.

Police and paramilitary forces, meanwhile, kept watch at more than 50 spots across Gurugram to prevent fresh flare-ups in a city already scorched by violence and distrust.