Members from the Muslim community offered prayers on a hastily readied piece of land adjacent to the boundary wall of the Kamala Maula Dargah near the Bhojshala complex in Dhar on Friday, after a two-week gap.
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The administration levelled a farm land with a JCB machine, spread plastic sheets over the rain-soaked muddy soil and allowed the prayers after 2 pm on Friday.
Police had to be deployed ahead of the prayers after local residents objected to the administration’s decision to allocate the land to the Muslim community. Officials said the complaining locals claimed the allocated land was privately-owned but failed to show any legal papers.
A local resident Radha Devda said, “This is private land and belongs to my father and brothers. We have been earning our livelihood for the past four generations. We can’t allow the administration to do so. They asked for papers but we couldn’t provide them as the male members were not present at the house.”
Sub-divisional magistrate Rajkumar Haldar said, “In the records, khasra no 611 and 612 belong to the government but (still) requested them to allow Friday’s prayer today and (assured them that) their plea will also be heard. They couldn’t show us the papers but we gave them time to address their grievances.”
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A police contingent was deployed and barricades were put up to ensure that the prayers were conducted without any untoward incident.
“We offered prayer on the space provided by the administration as a temporary arrangement till the final hearing of the Supreme Court. The space was even and muddy but the administration used plastic covering. Now, we are satisfied that at least we can see Kamal Maula Mosque while offering prayer,” Abdul Samad from the Kamal Maula Welfare Society, Sadar, said.
What the SC said
The Supreme Court on July 10 had asked the administration to allocate land adjacent to Bhojshala for Friday prayers between 1 PM and 3 PM. The administration designated land near Chalispir Dargah in Maliwada village, about 1.5 km away, but the Muslim community refused to offer prayers at that location.
Later, representatives from the community filed an application in the court and at Thursday’s hearing the Supreme Court approved this land for prayer.
Hearing a petition on Thursday, a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana directed the Madhya Pradesh government to ensure Muslims were allowed to offer prayers at the site between 1 pm and 3 pm on Fridays.
Earlier, on May 15, the Indore bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court ruled that the religious character of the Bhojshala–Kamal Maula Mosque complex is that of a temple dedicated to Goddess Vaagdevi Saraswati. The court directed both the central and state governments to provide separate land in Dhar for the Muslim community to construct a mosque. Now, the Muslim community moved to the Supreme Court against this decision.
