Barbed wire cordon at the Charminar on Friday. (PTI)

Hyderabad, April 2: For the first time in decades, most Muslim residents of Hyderabad’s old city were forced to offer Friday prayers at their homes instead of at mosques today because of curfew following sectarian clashes.

The violence, which broke out on March 27 after a dispute over religious flags, has claimed two lives and left over 150 injured.

Curfew continued in violence- hit parts of Hyderabad for the fourth day. Although the situation has been peaceful, the police were on high alert because of the Friday prayers.

The K. Rosaiah government had rejected clerics’ request to relax the curfew for a few hours this afternoon, prompting Mufti Khaleel Ahmed, head of the Jamia Nizamia University, to issue a fatwa last evening.

He said Friday prayers at mosques were a must only when they could be offered without any disturbance and without endangering lives.

“If the police and the government do not relax the curfew, please offer the Friday prayers at your homes and do not venture out,” the fatwa said.

The police and political leaders, too, requested Muslims to pray inside their homes.

The imam of the famous Mecca Masjid, Maulana Abdullah al Quraishi al Azhari, said this was perhaps the first time in two decades that the common man could not offer Friday prayers at the mosque.

“Even after the bomb blast (on the Mecca Masjid premises in May 2007), curfew had been lifted briefly to facilitate Friday prayers,” he said.

The police said some 200 people who had then turned up at the Mecca Masjid were allowed to offer prayers after being frisked.

Police commissioner A.K. Khan, who toured the troubled areas this morning, said the curfew could be lifted for a while tomorrow depending on the situation.

Security was tightened today at all places of worship in Hyderabad and in districts such as Adilabad, Mahabubnagar and Nizamabad.

Some 2,000 Hyderabad police personnel and 30 paramilitary companies fanned out across the 10sqkm area of the old city.

All the mosques were cordoned off and barbed wire was laid out at the mouths of the serpentine lanes.

The police have arrested about 200 people in connection with 67 cases of rioting, stone-throwing, attacks on places of worship, arson, looting and damage to public and private property.

The Opposition Telugu Desam has alleged that quarrels within the state Congress led to the riots.

The chief minister has denied the involvement of his political opponent Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy —Kadapa MP and son of late chief minister Y.S.R. Reddy or the mining mafia — in the violence.

Senior Congress leader K. Keshava Rao has demanded an inquiry to clear the air.