A Muslim employee of State Reserve Force in Hangoli district of Maharashtra was directed to shave off his beard or be ready to face stringent punishment. Naik Mazhar Jafar Shaikh, badge no. 988 in battalion No.12 of Hangoli State Reserve Force who was employed in 2002 and was doing his duty honestly decided to sport beard in order to follow the traditions of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be to him). But the Assistant Commandant did not allow him doing so and directed him to join the battalion clean shaved.
Earlier, Mazhar had written to the office of Commandant on July 18, 2012 regarding permission to have beard but did not get any response from the office. Later, he received a letter from the office of the Commandant on September 10, 2012 asking about for how many days he wanted to have the same. He replied that he wanted to have beard forever. Then the officials kept mum and the victim wrote to the Union Home Ministry regarding the issue. “The officials are forcing him to come with clean shave though the Director General of Police has given a letter—SSA10/2001/1075-4 dt. 18.10.2001GR—along with a notification of Union Home Ministry permitting him to have beard,” reports Rahnuma-e-Deccan, an Urdu daily published from Hyderabad.