Lucknow, July 19: The Lucknow Police have arrested four youths in connection with offering namaaz at the newly opened Lulu Mall.
All four alleged namazis (one who offers namaz/prayer) are Muslims and are being questioned.
They have been identified as Mohd Rehan, Atif Khan, both residents of Lucknow, and Mohd Lukman and Mohd Noman – both brothers.
They are all residents of Indira Nagar in Lucknow.
During initial interrogation, the youths said that they were in the mall and it was time to offer namaaz and so they sat down for prayers.
“We are questioning them in order to find out the motive behind the incident and whether there was any conspiracy to disturb the law-and-order situation,” said a senior police official.
The Lucknow Police also issued a press note rejecting reports that the eight persons, who were caught on camera offering namaz in Lulu Mall on July 12, were non-Muslims.
The note issued by the Lucknow Commissionaire on Tuesday said four persons – Saroj Nath Yogi, Krishna Kumar Pathak, Gaurav Goswami and Arshad Ali – were arrested on July 15 for attempting to perform religious rituals after the incident (July 12) in order to disturb communal harmony.
Yogi, Pathak, and Goswami were allegedly trying to perform a puja while Ali was allegedly trying to offer namaz on the mall’s premises.
Misleading news was circulated on social media claiming that three out of the four people arrested on July 15 were the namazis in the July 12 incident, the note said.
Apart from these four, 18 persons were booked on July 16 for disturbing law and order while trying to enter the shopping mall. On the same day, two others were taken into custody for reciting Hanuman Chalisa and raising slogans to disturb the harmony.
