Navratri fest: Got 500 meat shops shut in Gurugram, claims Shiv Sena

GURUGRAM: The Shiv Sena today claimed to have got 500 meat shops and restaurants serving non-vegetarian food not only closed but even making their owners agree to keeping the establishments shut in view of the Navratri festival.

A Muslim man sits outside his closed shop in Gurugram on Wednesday. REUTERs

Navratri fest

Sumedha Sharma

Tribune News Service

Gurugram, March 29

The Shiv Sena today claimed to have got 500 meat shops and restaurants serving non-vegetarian food not only closed but even making their owners agree to keeping the establishments shut in view of the Navratri festival. The police, however, refuted the claim.

The Shiv Sena activists claimed to have achieved the 'utopian' settlement with meat sellers for keeping their units closed for the entire Navratri festival and on Tuesdays; that too peacefully. However, there were reports that meat shop owners were forced to shut their establishments.

“We were a group of hundred people who urged the owners of meat shops and restaurants, including KFC in Sector 14 and meat shops near the Sadar Bazaar mosque, to keep their businesses shut during the Navratri festival so as to respect Hindu sentiments. They all agreed to do so. Many of them even shut their shops today. We work towards peaceful coexistence and there was nothing like forcing anybody,” said Shiv Sena district president Gautam Saini.

Since morning today, electronic media showed reports of hundreds of Shiv Sena workers getting meat shops forcefully shut and even pasting pamphlets asking closure of establishments during Navrati and Tuesdays.

The police, however, dismissed the claim.

"No meat shop was shut forcibly in Gurugram. Nobody has the right to do that. We did not get any complaint against exaggerated claims of a particular party and have visual proof of all shops, especially those near the mosque, being opened. No such nuisance had occurred. The police stand guard to protect the rights of one and all,” said Commissioner of Police Sandeep Khirwar.

“Only one of us, who was unwell, had kept the shutters down. It was not because any party asked the shop owner to do so. They did come here but we told them that we had the licence to operate, following which they left. There was nothing or will be nothing like mass closure,” said one of the meat shop owners near the Sadar Bazar mosque.