The dispute over a contentious piece of land grew complicated as opposing parties involved in the land dispute in the Saharanpur city of Western Uttar Pradesh produced documentary evidence proving their right over the disputed property.
In the wee hours of Saturday, riots broke in the Qutub Sher Police Station area of Saharanpur city when the administration failed to stop the riots that broke out between two religious communities over a land dispute.
The Sri Guru Singh Sabha was constructing an extension to the Gurudwara on a land where, according to the residents, a mosque stood.
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While the Sri Guru Singh Sabha members produced legal papers showing that the land belonged to the Gurudwara, Nadeem Akhtar, the Saharanpur Shahar Qazi, said the property was disputed.
Prabhjit Singh, a member of the Sri Guru Singh Sabha showed a May 2013 Order of the Saharanpur Additional District Judge which states: ‘There is no evidence of a public mosque on the disputed land.’
The Order states that uninterrupted construction of the Gurudwara must be allowed on the land.
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Mr Akhtar said, “There are Revenue records, Survey of India records, and the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board records which are proof enough that a mosque existed on the land which now belongs to the Sri Guru Singh Sabha.”
The Sunni Waqf Board is a government department to manage the property belonging to Sunni Muslims.
In 1949, Hasan Askari sold his property on the Gurudwara road. The papers of sale specifically mentioned that around 500 square yards must not be used for any construction as it had a mosque – the Askari mosque – constructed on it, Mr Akhtar said.
The land was resold to the Sri Guru Singh Sabha, but, the family which sold the land did not mention the part about excluding the area occupied by the mosque while constructing any structure on the 2,900 square yards. “This is the root cause of the conflict,” Mr Akhtar said.
Mr Akhtar alleged that the Sri Guru Singh Sabha demolished the mosque in the year 2010. “Since then the land dispute has been a point of contention between the two communities,” he said.
Representing the community, Mr Akhtar said, “We have no objection to any construction on the land by the Gurudwara except on the land where the mosque existed.”
Mr Akhtar said an amicable way, probably discussions, would be sought to solve the dispute. “If the issue is not resolved amicably then the legal course would be sought,” Mr Akhtar said.
Some years back, Moharram Ali Pappu, a resident of Saharanpur, had filed a petition in the court stating that the land purchased by the Sri Guru Singh Sabha had a mosque built over it and must not be used by the Gurudwara.
Meanwhile, the Saharanpur residents were relieved as the district administration partially revoked the curfew, on Monday.
Curfew was partially revoked in the new city area of Saharanpur between 10 in the morning to 2 in the afternoon, and between 3 and 7 in the evening in the old city area.
However, the curfew continued after 7 in the evening. Saharanpur Additional District Magistrate (ADM) Dinesh Chandra said the feedback of the old city and the new city areas would be reviewed to decide on further imposing the curfew or revoking it.
Security forces continued patrolling the area to keep any violence in control in the period when the curfew was revoked.
Petrol pumps and market area got flooded with people in the hours when the curfew was revoked. In the old city area, where communal riots on Saturday resulted in the death of the three persons, the affected people flooded the streets and bought necessary commodities.
Mr Chandra said, “A meeting would be held in the night to decide about the necessary preparations for Tuesday – the day of the festival of Eid-ul-Fitr.”
Earlier story can be read >here .