By M. Reyaz, TwoCircles.net,
Karnal/Haryana: In over 4 acres of land in sector 6 of Karnal, a town in Haryana, about 115 km from the national capital, where now colonies have developed was once a Muslim graveyard, so was about 6 acre plot in Vasant Vihar on the Kailash Road in the same town.
Wakf properties in the state of Haryana are not safe owing to escalating rise in the praise of land. The story of mismanagement of Wakf properties by respective state Wakf Boards are not new, but in Haryana increasingly we are seeing rise in number of such cases owing to ‘collusion’ between Wakf Board members and land mafia.
Haryana Muslim Khidmat Sabha memebrs meeting Ahmed Patel
There are about 12954 Waf properties under the Haryana Wakf Board, most of which are mosques, madrasas, graveyards, dargah, etc.
Allegedly With the help of SHO and local administration some “anti social elements” demolished the Dhogran Masjid in Ward 2, of Indri kasba in Karnal district on December 20, last year. Advocate Mohd. Rafiq Chauhan, State Chief Coordinator of the Haryana Muslim Khidmat Sabha, had immediately sent a mail to several state bodies, including the Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Later he also wrote him a letter urging him to take immediate actions, but to no avail.
Chauhan told TCN that all his efforts for help from local administration had mute response and hence he had to approach the court, which ash now given a stay order.
In Chandasrai over 21 bighas of land were sold to land-mafias by the Wakf Board for mere one lakh and forty thousand rupees on paper, and immediately all the graves were being labeled for the construction of roads, and ‘plotting’ to sell lands to respective buyers. However, as some skeletons and remains of erstwhile graveyards, began to be unearthed local Muslims protested, after which their patta has been canceled. Locals allege that the Wakf officials pocketed Rs 45 lakh for this ‘illegal’ deal.
In village Sher Shah, near Kundali border in district Sonepat, land mafia tried to grab another 3 acre grave yard, but the villagers protested and the case since then is pending in the court.
Call it the ignorance of the state Wakf Board or their collusion that in the district of Gurgaon in Banskusla village land belong to the Wakf Board, and part of the village grave yard, has been ‘acquired’ by the IMT, Manesar on July 16, 2005 and the same has been awarded by the Wakf Board dated July 27, 2006.
Advocate Chauhan, alleges that he has written to the minority commission, Wakf board officials, and also the chief minister but it has not yielded anything positive so far. He recently also met Ahmed Bhai Patel, the political advisor of Sonia Gandhi and urged him to look into the matter.
There are several more incidences from Gurgaon, Karnal, Fatehbad, Sonepat, all of which are seeing real estate boom, owing to its proximity to Delhi. As most of the Wakf properties fall on ‘prime’ locations, land mafia is maneuvering, in collusion with local administration and Wakf officials to grab them.