21:38, 26 October 2018

Blocked roads affect number of namaz participants in Magas

Believers during namaz, Magas, October 2018. Photo courtesy of Yakub Gogiev for the "Caucasian Knot"

Opponents of the agreement on the Ingush-Chechen border had to walk to the venue of the Friday namaz (prayer) in Magas, since roads were blocked. Elderly believers were forced to refuse to participate in the prayer, activists have stated.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on October 19, thousands of people gathered for their Friday namaz in the city of Magas, the capital of Ingushetia.

Starting from October 4, Magas hosted a round-the-clock mass rally against the change in the border with Chechnya. Protestors demanded the referendum on the issue of the border and the resignation of the republic's leader. On October 17, the organizing committee of the rally decided to interrupt the action to prepare the World Congress of the Ingush People on October 30, but called on the protesters to come to a prayer at the mosque in Magas on October 19.

The road to the namaz venue in Magas, at the construction site of the cathedral mosque, was blocked, and elderly people could not get there, the activist Isabella Evloeva said during a live broadcast on the Facebook. "The road, I think, was blocked, because last time the protest continued with the drivers' solidarity act, who signalled, and thus expressed their protest throughout their journey from Magas. Of course, this created certain inconveniences for the city transport," she has suggested.

Part of the protesters refused to participate in the namaz beforehand, having learned about the impossibility to drive to the venue, Malika Doskieva has noted on Evloeva's page in the social network. "Many haven't come, as there was information that roads would be blocked from all sides," she wrote.

The video posted by Evloeva shows people performing namaz; we see hundreds of them. The action takes place under policemen's supervision. After the prayer, believers dispersed quietly.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on October 26, 2018 at 05:13 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.