Worshippers and mosque committee leaders were unable to reach the 136-year-old Bankra mosque beside the boundary wall of Kolkata’s Dum Dum airport in West Bengal, India, to offer Friday prayers despite having announced they would do so. Large numbers of police and central security personnel were deployed in the area from Friday morning, and Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) — the former Section 144 of the Indian Penal Code — was imposed, making any gathering or programme impossible.
The mosque committee president and former state minister Siddiqullah Chowdhury, state president of Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind, one of India’s largest Muslim organisations, had announced on Thursday that Friday prayers and a peaceful supplication and protest would be held at the Bankra mosque. But on reaching the airport’s Gate No. 7 area, Siddiqullah spoke with officials and said the programme could not be held in the present situation; witnesses said he later offered Friday prayers with his supporters at another nearby mosque. In several parts of Kolkata, some worshippers were seen wearing black armbands during prayers in silent protest. From Friday morning Section 163 was imposed around Gate No. 7, with West Bengal Police, central security forces, the Rapid Action Force (RAF) and water cannon deployed, and Bidhannagar Police cordoning off the entire area.
The mosque authorities allege that access and prayers were stopped there a few days ago as part of a plan to remove the mosque adjoining the airport. At a Kolkata Press Club news conference on Thursday, Siddiqullah Chowdhury and committee members said the path to the mosque had been closed from inside since 11 July, and that central security personnel had told them prayers could no longer be offered at the mosque beside the airport. The committee said no discussion was held and no written notice given before prayers were stopped at the mosque, which it said was established in 1890 and was once used by people from a wide surrounding area, including many worshippers who came from parts of present-day Bangladesh in undivided India. The committee members, led by Siddiqullah Chowdhury, tried to gather on Friday to demand that prayers be restored and Gate No. 7 opened, but the tight security and Section 163 prevented it, leaving a simmering tension in the North 24 Parganas district area.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report