UP: Hockey legend Mohammad Shahid’s Varanasi home among 13 bulldozed
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Varanasi: The Uttar Pradesh government has demolished the Varanasi home of hockey legend and Olympian Mohammed Shahid, erasing a living memorial to the Padma Shri awardee and 1980 Moscow Olympics gold medallist.
The residence where Shahid lived until his death in 2016 was bulldozed. Revenue officials and public works department staff, accompanied by bulldozers under police protection, carried out the demolition despite strong objections from Shahid’s family and sports enthusiasts. Officials said the demolition was part of the Kachari–Sandh Road expansion project, under which 13 houses in the area were bulldozed.
Family members said they had pleaded for the house to be preserved as a memorial to the player who brought India international acclaim. Shahid’s brother Mushtaq accused authorities of discrimination, saying that while the road was being widened to 21 metres elsewhere, 25 metres of land had been taken from their locality. “We even sought an extension of the deadline, but they refused to listen. The bulldozers demolished the entire house,” he said.
Shahid’s wife said the house was “not just a building but our family’s history and the memories of a man who gave India extraordinary achievements in hockey”. Residents also alleged they were paid only a fraction of the value of the demolished structures and no compensation for the land acquired.
A video of Shahid’s brother pleading with officials went viral after being shared by Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, who condemned the action, warning that “even injustice has a lifespan”.
Aam Aadmi Party leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh called the move “an injustice under the guise of road development”, accusing Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of targeting minorities and Dalits. “Mr. Modi, you can give 1050 acres of land to Adani for 1 rupee, but not even one house to the family of the late Mo. Shahid,” he said.
Mohammed Shahid, who played for India between 1979 and 1989, won medals at the Asian Games and Olympics and was regarded as one of the finest dribblers of his era. He died in July 2016 at the age of 56.
