This was followed by protests by Muslims of Hyderabad and even local MLA from AIMIM visited the spot and offered the afternoon namaz at the demolished site with the resident Muslims of Amberpet.

Activists and leader of political party Majlis Bachao Tehrek (MBT) say that the masjid and the Ashoor Khana are wakf property and. The state has to protect Wakf properties and not destroy them.

However in this case the GHMC paid a compensation of 6 crores to some people who claimed that the land was theirs. These ‘private players’ had allegedly encroached the land and then forged the papers of the properties in their names and claimed the compensation from GHMC.

But as per the original records and the gazette notification No 24-B this property on which stood the Masjid and the Ashoor khana belonged to the Wakf board. Some representatives of the Wakf Board came forward to complain that the property was indeed that of the Wakf Board.

The Muslim youth with help from some local leaders tried to build a shed like structure to continue to offer prayers there but the police prevented the same and there was even violence between the police, the protesting youth and other fringe elements from the Hindutva brigade who pelted stones to prevent the construction of the Masjid.

Some arrests have been made by the police wherein youth from the Muslim community and the Hindu community have been booked for assaulting the police and for promoting enmity between different religious groups respectively.

Md Azharuddin, former cricket captain and congress leader in a press conference demanded investigation into the matter and re-construction of the 200 year old masjid which is a heritage property and should have been saved.

No leaders from the ruling party Telangana Rasthra Samithi (TRS) or even Muslim leaders from TRS have come forward to talk about the demolition of the Masjid.

Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) have submitted representation to the Home Minister, Shri Mohammed Mehmood Ali to take immediate action and investigate into the matter and order for the reconstruction of the Masjid.

In their representation released to the press, the IUML have also brought to the notice of the Home  Minister other incidents of injustice and violence against Muslim in Telangana State such as the stopping of fruit merchants in Jagtyal from offering prayers in the premises of market, custodial death of Abdul Manan, a cloth merchant from Uttar Pradesh in the police station of Warangal district of Telangana state. The IUML have demanded the TRS government to be secular and take action against the atrocities on the Muslim minorities instead of being silent. The silence of the present government sends the message that they are anti-Muslim.

There is a strong police patrolling at Amberpet now where the Masjid ek Khana stood as it is the month of Ramzan.

Post protests and demands from Muslims the Home minister has assured that the masjid will be reconstructed but there is stiff opposition from the BJP MLA and his supporters.

Courtesy: Two Circle

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Many other NGOs and activists have been fighting the land mafia of Wakf properties from the last 10 years with no results. Tausif Shaikh had submitted several petitions to the higher authorities from the last few years and had even filed complaints with the Police station. Even after so many years and so many attempts no action has been taken against the land mafia.

Upset and frustrated over this inddiference of the officials Tausif set himself on fire and committed suicide right in from the collector’s office in Ahmednagar. This is the first suicide case in the state of Maharashtra of a Muslim and first suicide protesting against Wakf mafia in India.
The police have registered a case against Tausif Shaikh for commiting suicide. But the local Muslims are agitated over this move by the police and demanding to register a criminal case against the abetors of Tausif’s suicide and the illegal encroachers of the Wakf land.

The waqf land mafia are continuously acquiring lands not only in Ahmednagar, Aurangabad, Nashik, Pune but all over the Maharshtra State.

With inputs from Urdu City, Malegaon

Courtesy: Two Circles
 

The post Disgusted with Wakf Mafia, activist commits suicide in Ahmednagar, Maharashtra appeared first on SabrangIndia.

(File Photo By: Political Mirror)

Need to promote equality and fraternity
The Haryana Chief Minister has said that if some peopled have an objection to offering prayer on roadsides, then this matter must be given a serious consideration. That is fully understandable, but the Waqf properties solely belong to Muslims. They may offer their prayers there and if someone creates trouble against offering Namaz at these properties, then the Chief Minister must simultaneously take action against those who create such disturbance. The Waqf Board has also said that if for facilitating Namaz, it is needed to carry out construction on these properties then the Board is ready even for that.

On the other hand, the Haryana Government has acquired two acres of land of Waqf Board in Chauma Village of Palam Vihar. The High Court has ordered the State Government to provide alternate land to the Waqf Board; that’s yet to be done. Also, Namaz is not offered in the mosques of Vazirabad, Daulatpur, Nasirabad, Dhankot, Meoka and Garhi Harsawar as the local safronites have objection thereto. Additionally, such elements have been creating hindrance in the construction of mosques on the Waqf Board land in Jharsa, Fazilpur, Naurangpur and Meoka.

Remove encroachments from Waqf properties
The Justice Sachar Committee Report has listed those Wakf properties which are the mosques and tombs but are in the control of the Archaeological Survey of India that does not allow Namaz there whereas such a ban is against the law. The purpose of giving a heritage property in the custody of ASI is that it protects and preserves the property, but the level of the ASI’s characteristic neglect is to be seen to be believed. Such Wakf properties under ASI’s control are widely encroached upon and these mosques and tombs are atrociously desecrated.

Periodical joint meetings of ASI and CWC
As per the Justice Sachar Report, the implementation of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (AMASR) Act, 1958 has often been at cross purposes with the Waqf Act. There are innumerable cases where a Waqf property, despite being a place of worship or otherwise deserving religious reverence, cannot be touched by the Waqf Board because it is declared as a ‘protected monument’. Given the pathetic state of a large number of such Waqf properties under the control of the ASI, it would only be proper if their lists are annually reviewed and their condition is assessed in a joint meeting of senior officers of the ASI with the representatives of the Central Wakf Council. The minutes should be signed by both the parties, copies should be preserved by both of them as well as the ministries concerned.

The purpose of this Sachar recommendation was that those Waqf properties which the ASI cannot handle well should be given back under the control of the Waqf Board concerned. After the submission of the Sachar Report, two or three such did occur during 2007-08 but no substantial discussion is reflected from the minutes and thereafter the meetings were discontinued.

Raise the CWC Secretary’s rank to Joint Secretary to Govt of India
In this regard, it is important to note that due to the non-implementation of another vital recommendation of Sachar Committee the Waqf management has been suffering adversity. Para-4.1 on page-29 of the Report reads: “The Secretary of the Central Wakf Council should be an officer of the rank of at least Joint Secretary to Government of India so that meaningful and effective communication and interaction with government authorities is facilitated. In order to be effective, this officer must have a good knowledge of Wakf matters, Muslim scriptures and proficiency in Urdu.”

Here it is imperative to understand that there is a chain of Civil Services in the country and at every level, more than 90% of the country’s governance is handled by these high-ranking officers. If one Muslim officer of this bureaucracy is appointed as the Secretary of Wakf Council then the Central and State governments, as well as district collectors, will naturally hold him in high esteem, preempting inequity and dissipating impediments. Otherwise, the CWC Secretary (currently with no defined status in the Government hierarchy) does not command a level playing field vis a vis either the central and provincial ministries/departments/agencies or the district administration.

On the other hand, according to the UP provincial law, four Principal Secretaries, Director of Cultural Affairs, Divisional Commissioner of Varanasi and District Magistrate jointly manage the Kashi Vishwanath Temple. If any of them is not Hindu s/he would be replaced by the next in command. For the Hindu religious institutions of Karnataka, all the responsibility rests with a specially appointed Commissioner who, under section 3 & 7 of the provincial statute, must be an IAS officer professing Hindu faith.

Under sections 3 & 4 of the related law of Andhra Pradesh, only that person can be the Commissioner who has served as a District Collector and is Hindu. Under Section 9 & 10 of the Tamil Nadu statute, the officer concerned must have served as a member of the higher judiciary and should be Hindu. Under section 8(c) of the law in Kerala only that Hindu can be the Commissioner of Malabar Devaswam Board whose rank is not less than a Joint Secretary in the State Government.

Similarly, if the rank of the Secretary of the Central Waqf Council would have been raised to be at least Joint Secretary to the Government of India, then the impugned meetings with the Archeological Survey of India would not have been discontinued and at each meeting the CWC would have had the upper hand, the minutes of those meetings would have been written at higher governmental level of the Council and the latter would have made it sure that the decisions are taken and implemented in letter and spirit. On the same pattern, the remaining Waqf work in the whole country would also be better monitored. The Minister for Minority Affairs would do well to give his kind attention in this regard.

Appoint Working Chairman of CWC – Give him MoS rank
Besides, the Chairman of the Central Wakf Council is, ex officio, the minister himself and obviously, he does not have eight hours daily to look after the CWC work. Therefore, if he appoints one senior member of the Council (as per the Sachar Committee a former high court judge is preferable) as the full-time Working President of CWC and he is given MoS rank, then the Waqf management in India would get streamlined.

The role of the community
Simultaneously, the community would have to be proactive; it should persevere to restore the control to the Waqf Board in respect of those Waqf properties (a) whose upkeep is neglected by the ASI and (b) other umpteen properties under different kinds of encroachment. In Karnataka, a selfless civil contractor has got freed dozens of hitherto encroached Waqf properties and Namaz has been re-started there.

Central Government should vacate Delhi Waqf land
In Delhi, on 25 February 2017, the Land & Development Officer of the Union Ministry of Urban Development has allotted 2.33 acres (two plots) of Waqf land adjacent to the CGO complex to the Home Ministry for an amount of Rs 49,06,000 and handed over possession on 22 March 2017 for the construction of the offices, barracks, canteen and parking for the Central Reserve Police Force. The allotment order envisages that the CRPF will fight the ongoing civil case no. 397 of 2011 – Sri Habibur Rahman versus Union of India regarding the mosque and graves originally embedded in that plot. The allotment order also stipulates that another piece of adjoining land can be allotted to CRPF for which it will have to submit a separate application.

Thereafter, on 29 July 2017 the Delhi Waqf Board submitted a complaint to the SHO, Nizamuddin Police Station informing that the above-mentioned plots of land are notified in the Delhi Government Gazette dated 31 December 1970 as Graveyard and Lal Masjid under Khasra No. 360 and 361. It also complained that some government officers are trying to trespass the impugned Waqf property and they should be stopped. Copy of this complaint was endorsed to the Sub Divisional Magistrate, Defence Colony, Purani Gargi College Building, Lajpat Nagar IV and to the Deputy Police Commissioner, Sarita Vihar. The people of Delhi must get this land freed from illegal encroachment by the Government.

The author is President, Zakat Foundation of India

Courtesy: Two Circles

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