Over 50 panchayats in three Haryana districts — Rewari, Mahendergarh, and Jhajjar — have released letters over the past few days, barring the entry of Muslim traders and demanding that Muslims living in the villages submit their identity documents to the police.
This comes a week after violence broke out during a Hindu procession by VHP and Bajrang Dal in the Nuh district on July 31, causing tension in other parts of southern Haryana.
The letters were signed by sarpanches, as reported by Times of India.
Most of the villages barely have any residents from the Muslim community, with a few exceptions of families that have been living for three to four generations,” the newspaper reported.
Contradictorily, the letter said: “We don’t intend to hurt anyone’s religious sentiments.”
The sub-divisional magistrate of Narnaul (Mahendergarh), Manoj Kumar, told TOI that he hadn’t received physical copies of the letters but had seen them on social media. He asked the block office to send show-cause notices to all the panchayats.
“The minority community doesn’t even make up 2% of the population in these villages. Everyone lives in harmony, and such a notice will only disrupt that,” he said.”
