Mumbai: Ahead of Bakrid Thursday, tensions escalated across Mumbai and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), with disputes over the accommodation of sacrificial goats spilling into multiple neighbourhoods. A day after clashes broke out at a housing society in Mira Road over a temporary goat shed, similar issues surfaced in the Mumbai suburbs of Ghatkopar and Goregaon, keeping the areas on edge.
At Mira Road, a satellite town under Mira-Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) in Thane district, tensions flared at Poonam Estate Cluster 1 housing complex following objections by some residents to tying up of sacrificial goats, following which right-wing activists got involved, a pig was brought in, and the matter escalated to a scuffle in which the police had to intervene.
The police said they have registered three FIRs against members of right-wing groups for allegedly attempting to provoke communal tensions by bringing a pig near the society. A complaint has also been lodged at Kashmira police station over injury to a Bajrang Dal activist in the scuffle.
ThePrint spoke to members of the housing complex, who said the practice of keeping sacrificial lambs and goats at a designated spot in the society has been followed for several years.
A resolution to the effect was even passed at the society’s annual general body (AGM) in 2019, while the municipal corporation, fire department and police are intimated about the construction of the temporary shelter every year. ThePrint has seen copies of the documents for this year.
“This is not new. This has been permitted in the society for years now. The only issue was that we did not obtain a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the MBMC for the same. We only intimated them. But we have all the correspondence with the authorities,” one of the society residents told ThePrint, not willing to be named.
“This is nothing but an attempt to stir communal sentiments,” the resident alleged.
Umashankar Nag, a member of the society committee, told the media Wednesday that “they did not have permission from the MBMC”.
“The police only acknowledged the intimation letter. There was no permission as such. Despite our discussion, they attacked our Hindu brothers from the organisation,” Nag said.
While matters at the society have calmed down since Monday and Tuesday, when the arguments and clashes broke out between the society residents and right-wing activists, police have beefed up security and the goats have been removed.
Speaking to ThePrint, Sadiq Basha, a local activist associated with the Communist Party of India (Marxist), said the issue could have been resolved amicably among society residents without involvement of the Bajrang Dal.
“Differences do arise, but this could have been solved respectfully among the society members. What was the need to involve the Bajrang Dal? This is not democracy but mobocracy,” he said.
The Mira-Bhayander satellite town has over the last two years seen three incidents of communal clashes, including this week’s, with Basha alleging attempts to keep the communal pot boiling in the area.
ThePrint made calls to Mira-Bhayandar Municipal Corporation Tuesday, but they went unanswered.
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What happened at Mira Road
Poonam Estate Cluster 1 complex has around 650 apartments housing middle and upper middle-class families, of which around 400 are Muslim. The society celebrates four major occasions yearly: Ganapati, Navratri, Eid and New Year.
The minutes of the AGM conducted in 2019 note that all four festivals are popular in Maharashtra. “We should allow to keep goats during Bakri-Eid, in restricted covered area to preserve cleanliness of the common area of the society,” the minutes of the AGM read.
The society committee further informed the police that a temporary shed for the purpose of keeping goats would be built within the society premises from 18 May to 28 May this year for the occasion of Eid, after which it will be dismantled and the premises cleaned. The fire department and MBMC were given similar letters.
The society member mentioned earlier said that tensions started simmering between Muslim households and a few residents during Ramazan this year and worsened when the residents objected to keeping of goats, about 50, inside the society complex this year.
In a written complaint to the society committee chairperson on 22 May, the few aggrieved residents demanded the immediate removal of the animals.
“We express our absolute outrage regarding the illegal and intolerable livestock set up. It is an egregious violation of our rights, safety, and the sanctity of the residential complex,” the letter signed by six members of the society states, seen by ThePrint. “If the livestock is not removed, we will initiate aggressive legal and administrative proceedings.”
Hemendra Joshi, another society member, told the media Wednesday that some members had been writing to the society committee against the practice for six-seven years now.
“But the committee hasn’t listened. Constructing a shed is permitted only after the municipality gives an NOC. But they don’t have the permission. So, it is illegal,” he said.
The society member quoted earlier admitted that “we did not get an NOC from the MBMC regarding the shed, and we thought an intimation would suffice, as has been done for several years. We were not doing anything illegal”.
According to the society members, the aggrieved residents subsequently asked Bajrang Dal activists to intervene Monday night, and they started demanding that the goats be removed, leading to arguments between the activists and Muslim residents. VHP workers were also present. Later, a scuffle broke out and one of the activists was allegedly attacked with a sharp object and suffered injuries.
“We had discussed Monday that there should be harmony between the communities, but at the same time, there is an attack on our Hindu brothers. Then how can we talk about harmony?” Joshi asked.
On Tuesday, Bajrang Dal and VHP workers again gathered outside the society and started demanding that the goats be removed. One of the activists even brought a pig, arguing that if goats can be allowed, they would keep pigs as well in the society premises. The animal was promptly taken away by the police, but not before a video of the incident went viral on social media.
Another society resident, Hemashree Joshi, who stays in an apartment near the shed, told the media: “There is a lot of noise and smell because of the goats. Small children play with the goats starting from 7 am till night, which is disturbing.”
Speaking to ThePrint, the society member quoted above admitted that “those living on the first and second floors near the shed do face difficulties such as smell and noise”.
“We have, however, been keeping them into confidence and making sure they are not inconvenienced. But this year, their complaint clearly went out.”
The member added that “MBMC officials initially told us that the plastic cover on the shed should be removed as it was a safety hazard and it was thus removed Saturday. They also said the shed should be covered with a metal sheet”.
Elaborating further, a second society member said it was decided that “we should go to the MBMC Monday and get a written letter from them regarding the metal cover for the shed. And so, the shed remained open for two days, which led to spread of smell”.
“We were never going to perform goat sacrifice inside the society but we do have to keep the animals for a few days before the sacrifice,” the second member explained.
While the goats have now been removed, the first society member said the community has no intention to “give any trouble to anybody, so if the AGM decides we should not follow this tradition of keeping goats, we won’t do so from next year”.
Three incidents, two years
Mira Road is a rapidly growing satellite town and, according to the 2011 Census, comprises 69% Hindu residents, 16% Muslims and 14% from other communities. The local legislator is Narendra Mehta, from the BJP.
In January 2024, communal clashes broke out at Mira Road’s Haidri Chowk when a religious procession in Muslim-majority Nayanagar area—to mark the consecration of the Ram idol in Ayodhya—allegedly came under attack.
After the clashes, BJP’s Kankavli MLA Nitesh Rane visited the police commissioner and urged him to take strict action. “We will not let Nayanagar become Pakistan,” Loksatta quoted him as saying. This was after he threatened to “kill” in response to the violence. Mira Bhayander’s then MLA, BJP’s Geeta Jain, had also spoken in a similar vein on social media.
Then last month, a 31-year-old man identified as Zaib Zubair Ansari allegedly attacked two security guards—Subroto Ramesh Sen and his supervisor Rajkumar Mishra—at an under-construction building behind the Wockhardt Hospital in Mira Road in the early hours.
The incident is being probed by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), which suspects it to be a “lone wolf attack”.
The FIR filed in the matter says Ansari first asked Sen at the gate for directions to the nearest mosque, and later asked for the name of the mosque. When Sen said he did not know, Ansari asked if he was a Hindu. Moments later, he returned and stabbed Sen with a knife. It also says that Ansari walked into Mishra’s cabin and stabbed him too. One of the two guards told the police that the accused forced him to recite the kalma, the foundational declaration of Islam.
After the stabbing, the police searched Ansari’s flat, about 200 m from the attack location, in Nayanagar. They recovered notes where Ansari allegedly expressed a desire to join the Islamic State, a Salafi-jihadist outfit recognised as a terrorist organisation by the UN and several countries.
Basha sees the incidents as attempts to keep the communal pot boiling in Mira Bhayandar.
“We have been seeing that whenever there is tension between individuals, it is given a Hindu-Muslim angle by right extremists’ organisations. Why don’t the police act? Attempts have been made to break the brotherhood in Mira Bhayandar but after Eid, we all will gather and make sure a message of brotherhood goes out from this society,” Basha told ThePrint.
On Tuesday, Somaiya referred to the Mira Road housing society incident and last month’s attack on the security guards to allege that some people wanted to turn the area into “Pakistan”.
“Three weeks ago, in a settlement in Nayanagar, there was an attempt to kill watchmen. Some leaders want to make this Pakistan. We will never accept forceful entering of Hindu localities, slaughtering goats there and creating fear among Hindu vegetarians and Jain families,” he said.
Tensions around Bakrid
In the run-up to Bakrid this year, in Goregaon and Ghatkopar, too, the police had to remove goats from inside housing societies despite the grant of permission from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for their accommodation, after some residents protested against the housing of livestock.
In Goregaon’s Gokuldham area, the BMC had given permission for qurbani (sacrifice) at a society, but revoked it after some residents opposed it. This was after BJP corporator Priti Satam visited the society and said slaughter will not be allowed inside the complex.
Satam told the media Wednesday: “They are openly carrying out the ritual sacrifice of goats; we are opposing this because such sacrifices cannot legally be performed in public spaces.”
“We got this practice cancelled last year as well. The police, administration and the BMC authorities present here must exercise prudence in decision-making; these rituals should be conducted only at the sites officially allotted for them, not in open common areas of residential societies. A circular has been issued by the BMC regarding the same. They must strictly adhere to the established rules and regulations. If no action is taken, then all of us will take to the streets.”
In Ghatkopar’s Amrut Nagar area, civic officials revoked the permission granted to another society for housing of goats, and they were removed from the complex after tensions escalated between residents. Somaiya had visited the complex.
“In no situation will we allow slaughter to take place in societies. We will ensure that action is taken against the BMC officer who gave permission,” Somaiya said to the media.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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