Sword-wielding vigilantes force meat shops to close in Gurugram

GURUGRAM: More than a dozen

sword-wielding

right-wing activists on Saturday forced the closure of meat shops in the city’s Dundahera area, on the day Navratri began.


Eyewitnesses, who described the scenes as “horrifying”, said that the men, wearing saffron robes, marched along the main Dundahera road near Sher-e-Punjab hotel and demanded that the meat shop owners pull down their shutters.

“They entered this road in the morning and told us to close the shops,” said Munis-ul Rehman, a meat shop owner. “I am from Darbhanga village in Bihar and have been working here since 2010. I know Navratri occurs twice a year. We have always been shutting our shops during Dussehra but we were never asked to close shops during this time of the year. This is the first time it has happened,” he added.

Rehman said that he earns Rs 1,000 a day from his shop. “The people who came to tell me to close the shop are the same who gorge on chicken meals on other days,” he said.

Eyewitnesses told TOI that nearly all meat shops were asked to close. “There are over a dozen of these shops here, all of which have been closed down,” said Anees, who lives nearby. “There is one Munna Jhatka chicken shop, which is not owned by a Muslim. That too was closed down.”

The shop owners said that they are likely to incur losses of up to Rs 10,000 for the days that their shops will remain closed.

“Who is going to pay for the losses?” said a shop owner who did not want to be identified. “This is our only source of income. We have a hand-to-mouth living and barely save money unless it’s for marriages or emergency medical treatment. We have many mouths to feed at home.”

The saffron groups that TOI spoke to said that they were committed to ensure that illegal meat shops do not open during Navratri. They also said they had met the Gurgaon deputy commissioner and the MCG commissioner on Wednesday to demand action against such stalls.

“We are currently a roster of Hindu nationalist groups operating under a single banner in Gurgaon. The drive in Dundahera was carried out by Rakesh Banjara, a member of the Hindu Sena,” said Rajeev Mittal, spokesperson, Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Kranti Dal.

“We have been meeting the officials in Gurgaon and requesting them to close all the meat shops. There are an estimated 10,000 meat shops in the city of which only 129 have a valid licence. If the farmer of this country stops consuming onions on Navratri as a mark of respect to religious emotions, why can’t Muslim groups stop the sale of meat?” Mittal asked.

However, all the owners whose shops were forcibly closed down insisted that they had a licence.

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