Portion of dargah, a few shops cleared in Hubballi

Hubballi Dharwad BRTS (Bus Rapid Transit System) Company Limited acquired the land long ago for road widening

An earthmover was pressed into service to clear a portion of the dargah in Hubballi on Wednesday. | Photo Credit: PTI

In an early morning operation on Wednesday, authorities of Hubballi Dharwad BRTS (Bus Rapid Transit System) Company Limited cleared a portion of a dargah and a few shops adjoining the religious structure at Bhairidevarakoppa in Hubballi, under heavy police protection.

HDBRTS Company acquired the land for the BRTS project long ago and on Wednesday, the demolition of a portion of the dargah was carried out after due procedure, sources said.

Police keeping vigil during the clearance drive. | Photo Credit: Kiran Bakale

As a precautionary measure, Hubballi Dharwad Police Commissioner imposed prohibitory orders in the twin cities for a day (from 6 a.m. on Wednesday to 6 a.m. on Thursday) and on Wednesday, the Hubballi-Dharwad Road was closed for some time to facilitate the demolition.

As the dargah has three tombs, only a portion of the structure was removed by the authorities using earthmovers and the work of shifting the tombs to an existing structure behind the dargah has been entrusted to Anjuman-e-Islam.

While the tomb of Hazrat Syed Mohammed Shah Khadri measures around 10 ft x 10 ft, those of his two disciples measure 7 ft x 7 ft. Efforts are on to shift them without any damage and expert engineers are monitoring the process.

The former president of Anjuman-e-Islam Altaf Halwoor told presspersons that as per advice by experts, heavy earthmoving vehicles are being deployed for shifting the structure.

Terming the demolition of a portion of the dargah as a black day for the Muslim community, Mr. Halwoor said that while officials are cooperating with regard to the shifting, some vested interests are trying to put pressure on them to completely demolish the dargah.

Questions raised

Taking exception to the clearance, Member of Legislative Assembly Prasad Abbayya questioned the rationale behind the act.

“The structure stood at a place where there is a wide road and moreover, it is not affecting vehicular movement. However, there seems to be a political angle to it than an administrative reason, ahead of elections. Nobody would have objected if a mosque or a temple were to demolished,” he said.

“What is now being cleared is a tomb, people do know the motive behind the act. Those who initiated it will certainly bear the fruit of their act,” he said and added that it was nothing but an act to create conflict between communities.

Meanwhile, some more Congress members, including Anil Kumar Patil, Nagaraj Gouri and Naveen Mulla, have questioned the rationale behind clearing the structure terming it a political move ahead of elections.

Mr. Nagaraj Gouri said that while structures belonging to BJP leaders have been protected through deviation in plan, a religious structure was targeted for political reasons.