The Uttarakhand Police have asked Muslims in Badrinath to celebrate Eid in Joshimath, which is about 40 kilometres away, PTI reported.

According to the police, there are only around 10-12 Muslims living in Badrinath. They are mostly labourers who are working on construction projects in the temple town.

The Station House Officer at the Badrinath Police Station, KC Bhatt, said that the decision had been taken after a meeting was held by priests, contractors and the Muslim workers. He added that no one had objected to the proposal.

In 2021, a controversy had erupted after some Muslim labourers offered prayers near the Badrinath temple complex during the coronavirus-induced lockdown, according to The New Indian Express.

Panchayat president Praveen Dhyani told PTI that the incident was widely condemned and a case was registered. The investigation is still going on, he said.

Muslims in Purola told to avoid Eid gatherings even at home

In the Purola town of Uttarkashi district, Hindutva groups have allegedly told Muslim families not to congregate for Eid even inside their homes, the Hindustan Times reported.

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s working president Virendra Rawat said that namaz congregations would be provocative for the Hindu community, and alleged that such gatherings have a “hidden intention”, reported the Hindustan Times.

Rawat said: “Our view is that namaz congregation shouldn’t happen even at home. We raised our objections at different forums. They [Muslims] have agreed to it.”

Balle Khan, a resident of the town, told the newspaper that he organises gatherings of 70-80 locals at his home to offer namaz on Eid. However, this year, the community took a collective decision to avoid carrying out such prayers, he said.

A Muslim resident of Purola told Scroll that some members of the community on Wednesday held a meeting with the police and a traders’ body. “We ourselves said that we would not offer namaz in public,” he said. “We were being targeted for this.”

Mohammed Ashraf, a trader from Purola, told Scroll that only one or two families were in Purola on the occasion of Eid, and the rest were celebrating the festival elsewhere. “People used to go out of town for Eid earlier too, but not to this extent,” he added.

Purola had witnessed communal tensions over the past month following an alleged attempt to kidnap a 14-year-old Hindu girl by two men.

Although one of the two accused men was a Hindu, local Hindutva groups alleged that the kidnapping was a case of “love jihad” – a debunked conspiracy theory according to which Muslim men lure Hindu women into romantic relationships in order to convert them to Islam.

Hindutva groups had issued threats to Muslim traders to shut their shops and leave by June 15 following an alleged attempt to kidnap a 14-year-old Hindu girl by two men – one Hindu and other Muslim.

Several Muslims had at the time shut their shops and left the town temporarily and some of them subsequently returned.