“We have made it very clear that such prayers in protected monuments will not be allowed,” Home Minister P Chidambaram told reporters when asked to comment on Friday prayers being offered at a mosque in Qutub Minar, a monument protected by the ASI.
He said the Centre made this point clear on Friday, when such attempts were made.
“In the Jamali Kamali mosque, a protected monument, the law was enforced yesterday (Friday),” Chidambaram said making an appeal to people not to violate the norm laid down as early as January 1981. However, he said, there were 12 places of worship — five leading monuments and seven, where prayers have been offered on Fridays—where de facto prayers have been allowed.
“In those 12 places de facto status quo are intact. We are for defacto status quo. But in no other protected monuments prayers will be allowed to be offered,” said Home Minister P Chidambaram.
A group of people on Friday tried to forcibly enter ASI-protected mosques in south Delhi to offer Friday prayers but were prevented by the police.
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