State Must Ensure That Protected Monuments Dont Get Used For Prayers! Is anybody listening?

The Telegraph
25 July 2009

Qutb barge-in for prayers

CITHARA PAUL

New Delhi, July 24: A group of 200 barged into mosques on the premises of three protected monuments in south Delhi, including the Qutb Minar, this afternoon and offered Friday prayers against the rules.

Prayers are not allowed at mosques or temples inside monuments protected by the Archaeological Survey of India “unless prayers were already being held there when the ASI took the monument over”, ASI Delhi circle chief K.K. Mohammad said.

“What happened today was unfortunate and can have a national ramification. What if similar demands are made by Hindus and Buddhists over the Ajanta, Ellora or Elephanta caves?” Mohammad said.

Today, a single group entered the three mosques one after the other, brushing aside the two security guards at each. It prayed for 10 minutes at the Qutb Minar, for another 10 minutes at Jamali Kamali — the tomb of Sufi saint Shaikh Fazlullah — and then for a longer time at the Rajakibawali monuments. Here, ASI officials and police arrived and persuaded them to leave. A case has been registered.

Mohammad said crowds had invaded mosques at heritage monuments and prayed there earlier too, in places such as Hyderabad and Bihar apart from Delhi. “We had brought the issue up but the police took no notice.”