Bengal police disperse large Friday prayer gathering

A large number of people gathered at a mosque in West Bengal's Murshidabad district for Friday prayers defying the ongoing COVID-19 induced lockdown, prompting the police to disperse the crowd.

The incident occurred at Kandi's Gopi Nagar mosque, where a viral video showed a large number of people coming out of the religious place.

According to the police, the people including senior citizens and children left peacefully when they were instructed to vacate the mosque and go back home.

"They cooperated with us," a police officer said.

The police later instructed the imam to ensure there was no more gathering in the mosque till the lockdown was withdrawn.

BJP leader and union minister Babul Supriyo attacked chief minister Mamata Banerjee for the incident.

"West Bengal for you! This is bound to happen when the chief minister throws in a sense of carelessness in the air by throwing open the flower and paan markets, sweet shops etc. When 1000s of test kits sent by centre lie unused. People go carefree believing that #COVID19 has been defeated," Supriyo said in his post.