VIDEO: Hindu extremists torture teacher for making students enact Muslim prayers

Goons from a right-wing Hindu group attacked and assaulted a teacher in Ahmedabad's private school for allegedly making Hindu students enact Muslim prayers and Namaz on Tuesday.

After children in a private school in Ahmedabad were urged to "perform" namaz as part of practices of all religions, the Gujarat Government on Tuesday launched an investigation.

In the school in Ghatlodia, which is Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel's Assembly district in Ahmedabad, activists of various Hindu right-wing organisations staged a protest and assaulted a teacher.

Following these instances, the school administration first apologised before clarifying that no student was coerced into reciting the namaz and that the activity was a component of a lesson plan designed to introduce the pupils to different types of prayers from various religions.

A pupil from the primary division can be heard reciting the namaz in a video of the occasion that was later taken down from the school's Facebook page. Four more pupils then join him in singing "Lab pe aati hai dua," an Islamic prayer.

“In view of Eid, we had organised this activity for the students of standard II to give them information about the festival. We carry out such activities ahead of festivals of all religions, including Samvatsari (Jain festival) and Ganesh Chaturthi. No student was forced to perform namaz. It was just a two-minute activity, and the students who participated had taken consent from their parents,” said School principal Nirali Dagli.

However, following the demonstrations by the Hindu right-wing organisations, the State government joined the controversy and promised an investigation.

“It seems that some people want to disturb the peaceful atmosphere of the state by organising such programs in schools. Students who took part in that programme may not be even aware what exactly they were doing. This is not at all acceptable,” said Minister of State for Primary, Secondary and Education Praful Pansheriya, who ordered the investigation.

The action would come after the investigation, he also said.

In the meantime, members of the Bajrang Dal, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, and other right-wing organisations protested on the school's grounds, demanding that similar occurrences should never be tolerated there.

When the children were requested to practise the prayers of several religions, members of such organisations and a few parents who joined the protests reportedly assaulted a teacher who was playing a musical instrument.

However, the administration of the school has not complained about them. Instead, they offered an apology and a promise that it wouldn't happen again.

“We wholeheartedly celebrate all Indian festivals including Ganeshotsav, Janmashtami, Navratri, Eid, Christmas, Navroz, Guru Purab, Paryushan, etc. and encourage our students to participate in them. During the school assembly on the occasion of Eid, one of our students depicted how namaz is performed while three other children stood by the depiction. The sole objective of the act was to educate children about the diverse customs of India. It was never our intention to hurt the sentiments of the followers of any religion,” a statement issued by the school management said.