51 people allowed to participate in Nuh ritual after yatra permission denial

A group of 51 people, including Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Alok Kumar, were on Monday allowed to participate in a ritual at Nuh’s Nalhar Temple after the authorities died permission for a yatra for it a month after the first iteration of the procession triggered communal clashes and left six people dead.

Police said the group carried out Jalabhishek along with locals and the temple priests for around 35 minutes before leaving the Muslim majority Nuh’s Singar village on foot. They added no permission for any procession or the entry of outsiders other than the group was allowed. The group was allowed entry into the temple after the checking of identity cards.

Kumar said last month’s violence could have been prevented had police and administration ensured similar security. “We had given a list of a 51-member committee. Only members of the panel were allowed to go inside the temple. If the same number of police and paramilitary force had been deployed last time, the violence would not have broken out,” said Kumar. He added they had vowed to complete the unfinished yatra to the temple last month. Kumar said they finished the remaining rituals on Monday.

Barricades were put up every 500 metres along the route to the temple ahead of the ritual. Surveillance drones, over 2,000 Haryana Police, and around 3,000 central paramilitary forces were deployed while entry and exit points to Nuh were sealed as VHP’s vowed to go ahead with the Braj Mandal Jalabhishek Yatra.

VHP agreed to call off the yatra and curtail the number of people for the ritual a day after Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar appealed against going ahead with the procession while the local administration denied permission for it.

“Our administration and police have taken this decision that instead of a yatra, people should perform Jalabhishek. It should be done where they [people] live instead of staging demonstrations while going to other places in Haryana.”

The Nuh administration earlier suspended internet services and bulk SMSs as a precautionary measure. Schools, colleges, and banks were also shut.

VHP leader Kulbhushan Bhardwaj earlier on Monday claimed he along with other prominent leaders of the organisation were prevented from leaving their homes and taking part in the procession. “There are police outside my house. They are not allowing me to go to the temple,” he said.

The Haryana Police denied any preventive house arrests were made.

On Sunday, Khattar cited the violence last month and said it is the responsibility of the government to maintain law and order. “That is why the permission to carry out this yatra was not given.”

On Saturday, Nuh deputy commissioner Dhirendra Khadgata and police superintendent Narendra Bijarniya held a meeting with peace committees. The Haryana Police coordinated with their counterparts in neighbouring Punjab, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chandigarh.

On Sunday, hundreds of police personnel manned entry and exit points to the National Capital Region as the region braced for the re-run of the yatra. On July 31, the yatra triggered violence for two days in the fringes of the Capital.

Police in Gurugram briefly detained two VHP leaders for questioning on Sunday, even as officials said that all district borders were sealed, and sensitive areas, including religious places, turned into virtual fortresses.

Police said they will not allow anyone to enter Nuh if they are not residents. Police teams began checking IDs and turning away those carrying IDs from Gurugram, Faridabad, and Palwal on Sunday.

Officials said no gathering of five or more people with any kind of weapons including lathis will be allowed.

Cow vigilante Raj Kumar or Bittu Bajrangi and his associates were among 292 people arrested for the violence last month. One of the prime accused, cow vigilante Mohit Yadav or Monu Manesar, remains at large. Bajrangi and Manesar are accused of releasing provocative videos a day before the July 31 procession inflamed communal tensions.

Village chiefs across Nuh asked local residents to stay indoors all day. Posters threatening Muslim migrant workers to leave and warning that their hutments would be set on fire also triggered panic in Gurugram on Sunday.