By TwoCircles.net correspondent,
Jahanabad: Magadh range DIG Perveen Vishishtha visited Sarthwa village and the Muslim graveyard on special order of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to find out a solution to a controversy over the graveyard.
The village under Makhdumpur police station of Jahanabad district was in the headlines a couple of months ago for wrong reasons. On 21st March, some anti-social elements entered the graveyard breaking its incomplete boundary wall and performed Holika Dahan (a ritual performed on the eve of Hindu festival Holi). TwoCircles.net was among the first to cover the news and it has since carried several stories on it.
DIG Vishishtha, on his daylong visit, invited representatives of both Muslim and Hindu communities and discussed the matter to find out a lasting solution. According to Muhammad Khursheed Anwar, one of the representatives of the Muslim community, Sarthwa graveyard is registered with state Wakf Board and this graveyard is in the government record also. He was surprised why the visiting official wanted to talk to the local residents rather than wakf officials.
Anwar said the DIG was clearly told that Muslims of this village had no power to give the land of the graveyard to local Hindus to perform their religious rituals. He stated that Hindus of the village were demanding 7 katha of the graveyard so that they could perform Holika Dahan on the eve of Holi every year. The graveyard is spread over four acres of land and one acre has been illegally occupied by Hindus.