A prayer room, located inside the porters’ restroom at KSR Bengaluru City railway station and operational for several years, sparked a communal controversy after a tweet went viral.

On Sunday, a Twitter handle claimed the porters’ retiring room at platform no. 6 had been converted into a room for conducting namaz. Subsequently, members of Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS) on Monday barged into the restroom and demanded cancellation of permission to conduct prayers.

The controversy caught South Western Railway officials by surprise as the prayer hall existed for several years without causing any disturbance to passengers. SWR is yet to issue an official statement on this, reported Times of India.

“We are quite baffled by the controversy. Porters belonging to different faiths work here. There is an old temple on platform no. 7 where prayers are offered by Hindus. Namaz is being offered by Muslim porters at this restroom. In fact, the temple at the platform was to be affected earlier by escalator work, but we all opposed and stopped it. There is also a church at the nearby railway colony. We distribute sweets and cakes during festivals. We don’t understand this commotion,” said a porter.

HJS submitted a memorandum to the divisional railway manager alleging the restroom has been converted into an unauthorised place of prayer and is a “threat to national security”.

"This is a very serious issue and a threat from the national security standpoint of view. Bengaluru KSR Railway Station is an important station in the state. Even though there are many masjids around the railway station, giving permission to perform prayers on the platform seems to be a conspiracy,” read the letter.

Allowing the prayer inside the railway station could lead to “chances of demands to convert this place into a masjid”, stated the letter. It further claimed that Bengaluru has been made a “haven of terror activities” pointing out that the National Investigating Authorities (NIA) had arrested West Bengal-based Adil Asadullah from the Bengaluru Cantonment station in 2018.

"In 2019, the NIA had arrested a terrorist, Mohammed Akram, from the Majestic Area (where the railway station is located) in Bengaluru. The police had arrested a Bangladesh-based terrorist, member of Jemaat-ul- Mujahideen, who was hiding in the Cottonpet Masjid in Bengaluru. Keeping this background, how appropriate is it to allow prayers on the platform? It is requested to take immediate action against those who have permitted the unauthorised place. Prayers should not be allowed at the resting room,” the letter added.

On Tuesday, the South Western Railways (SWR) shut the retiring room down and repainted the room's walls and deployed personnel from the Railway Police Force (RPF) after it was locked, News Karnataka reported. 

Image courtesy: Twitter