Bajrang Dal women allegedly offer puja in Taj Mahal
Agra, Nov 18 (IBNS): Three women belonging to a local right-wing outfit have allegedly performed puja in the mosque located at the Taj Mahal complex in Agra city of Uttar Pradesh on Saturday, media reports said.
The video of the incident has gone viral on social media.
The three women are reportedly belonging to the Rashtriya Bajrang Dal (RBD).
District RBD women’s wing president Meena Diwakar was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times, “We entered the Taj Mahal with ‘dhoop batti’ (incense sticks), Gangajal and match box and performed ‘aarti’ at the mosque on the premises. We ‘purified’ the location as it is our ‘Shiv Temple’, sanctity of which was damaged by ‘namaz’.”
“The identity of the Taj Mahal is because of Tejo Mahalaya, the Shiva Temple. Permission was granted for offering namaz once on Friday but it has been offered on other days too. So we also offered ‘aarti’. We are prepared to face action if those violating the norms by offering ‘namaz’ on week days are punished,” she told the newspaper.
The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) officials have started verifying the content of the video.
Ankit Namdev, the ASI conservation assistant at Taj Mahal, was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times, “We have come to know about the video of ‘aarti’. The details are being verified.”
“The matter is yet to come to me and in case there was such an incident, it would be probed,” said Brij Bhushan, CISF commandant, told the newspaper.
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