A video of two Muslim women, clad in burqas, offering namaz in a garden as onlookers watch is going viral on X (formerly Twitter). Many users have shared the video, claiming that the incident took place in the garden adjacent to the Morya Gosavi Ganpati Mandir in Chinchwad.
Sharing the video, a user wrote in Marathi, "There is a mosque within walking distance of the Morya Gosavi Temple, but they want to offer prayers near the Morya Gosavi Temple. This is the beginning. First, they send one or two women to analyse the situation and gradually increase the number, and one day they will build a shrine there and claim it."
"Our government is at fault. We need to avoid such practices, and there should be punishment for such acts. This is a way to grow from one to 100, then to 1,000 people, and this needs to be stopped at the very beginning," a user commented.
"This is the first time I have seen this in Chinchwad," another user stated. "@Dev_Fadnavis Sir, this is a serious matter. Kindly look into this, please," a third user wrote.
Meanwhile, speaking to The Free Press Journal, Zubair Memon, President of the Maharashtra Muslim Conference, confirmed that the video is from Pune district. "In Pune, almost every public garden governed by municipal corporations has a temple or a few temples in it, and every day pooja happens there — publicly and on speakers. Please check Saras Baug, for example. We don't have any problem with it, and nobody should have. If the government has a problem with Muslims doing prayers in their personal capacity, then every public garden should bear a board: 'Yaha par pooja karna allowed hai, par koi bhi Islamic prarthna karna allowed nahi'."
