Bangladesh cricket team skip visit to mosque, offer Friday prayer at hotel

Ahead of its T20 clash with India in Gwalior, the Bangladesh cricket squad did not visit the city's Moti Masjid on Friday, and instead, offered prayers at their hotel, a police official said on Saturday.

“We had made elaborate security arrangements around Moti Masjid, but the Bangladesh team did not turn up. No organisation had given any call to disrupt their visit,” Gwalior Zone Inspector General Arvind Saxena said over the phone.

The mosque in the city's Phoolbagh area is about 3 km from the hotel where the visitors have been put up. Security has been stepped up in the city amid a call for a ‘Gwalior bandh' on match day by right-wing outfits in protest against alleged atrocities on Hindus in Bangladesh since the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government there in August.

“The decision to skip the mosque visit might have been taken at the team's management level,” he said. The Shahar Qazi (city's top cleric) reached the hotel and led the Bangladeshi cricketers in offering Namaz-e-Juma (Friday prayer) between 1 pm and 2.30 pm.

The distance between the hotel and Madhavrao Scindia Cricket Stadium, where the Bangladesh team has been practising since October 3, is about 23 km and the players are moving freely as per their schedule amid security cover.

“Providing security to the visiting team over just 3 km was never an issue from our side,” the official said. Already, over 2,500 police personnel have been deployed for Sunday's India-Bangladesh T20I in Gwalior.

On Sunday, cops would be on the streets from 2 pm, until spectators reached home after the match, the police said. After prohibitory orders were invoked two days ago, the police were also keeping an eye on social media for inflammatory material.