Guwahati: The Assam Assembly has decided to discontinue the British-era practice of providing a break for Friday Namaz.

Effective immediately, there will be no break for Namaz prayers for Muslim legislators. Previously, a two-hour break from 12 P.M. to 2 P.M. was observed every Friday to allow Muslim MLAs to offer Namaz.

BJP MLA Biswajit Phukan stated, “The break for Namaz, a tradition since British times, has been removed. The decision was made at a meeting chaired by Assembly Speaker Biswajit Daimary, and it was unanimously supported by the legislators.”

The Assembly will now operate from 9:30 A.M. every day, including Fridays, instead of starting at 9 A.M. as it did to accommodate the Namaz break.

In related news, the Assam Assembly recently passed the Assam Compulsory Registration of Muslim Marriages and Divorces Bill, 2024, aimed at safeguarding the rights of Muslim individuals and addressing child marriages.

This new legislation replaces the outdated Assam Moslem Marriages and Divorces Registration Act, 1935. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has said that the registration Act will enhance the safety and security of Muslim women.

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Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.

The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.

Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.

The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.

India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.

In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.

Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.

The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.

It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.

Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.

The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.

The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.

On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.