Resume Friday prayers at Secretariat mosques : Congress

Hyderabad: The Congress party, on Wednesday, demanded that the Telangana government should permit Friday prayers at the two mosques on the Secretariat premises, Masjid-e-Moatamadi and Masjid-e-Hashmi, which were demolished.

"Since Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao had already expressed regret over demolition of the two mosques on the Secretariat premises and also promised their reconstruction, the state government should not have any objection over resumption of Friday prayers in those mosques immediately," Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) Minorities Department chairman Shaik Abdullah Sohail said in a media statement.

Sohail pointed out that Namaz was offered in both the mosques without any interruption till they were demolished on July 7, 2020. KCR has issued two statements stating that the state government would reconstruct the mosques. He gave this assurance to a delegation headed by MIM president Asaduddin Owaisi in the presence of Home Minister Mahmood Ali.

Therefore, it would be ideal if the same delegation offered prayers on coming Friday, September 11, 2020, on the debris of the Secretariat mosques. The All India Muslim Personal Law had rightly pointed out that according to the Islamic Shariah "at whichever place a Masjid is established, it remains a Masjid there forever till eternity." Therefore, Muslims need not wait for the foundation ceremony for reconstruction of a new structure and they should be permitted to offer Friday prayers, he said.

The Congress leaders said that the Home Minister and other Muslim leaders, including MLCs Md Fareeduddin and Farooq Hussain, Wakf Board chairman Mohd Saleem and others, should also join the prayers on coming Friday.

"Muslim leaders of the Congress, including former minister Mohammed Ali Shabbir, Feroz Khan and all other minority leaders are also ready to join them in the Friday prayers," he said, adding that resumption of prayers in the Secretariat mosques would send a positive message to the people and re-assure them that both the mosques would be reconstructed.

"We request all the leaders who were part of the delegation which met KCR on the issue to take the initiative of resuming Friday prayers in the Secretariat mosques. We are hopeful that Muslim leaders belonging to the TRS and MIM will also support this proposal. Any objection to immediate resumption of prayers in the Secretariat mosques might lead to suspicion that the CM is not serious about his promise and he might not reconstruct the demolished mosques in the near future," Abdullah Sohail said.