Uttar Pradesh's BJP govt demolishes 150-yr-old Muslim dargah!

Lucknow: Local administration in Uttar Pradesh’s Siddharthnagar district demolished a 150-year-old dargah of Fagu Shah Baba in Domariyaganj town on Tuesday, claiming that the dargah was illegally built on government grazing land. The administration made the move over a complaint filed by a BJP leader and former MLA Raghvendra Pratap Singh, Maktoob Media reported.

The demolition process was carried out under the leadership of Additional District Magistrate Gaurav Srivastava and Assistant Superintendent of Police Prashant Kumar in the presence of a heavy police deployment. The authorities did not allow the public or the media to enter the area when the demolition was going on.

It is learnt that the dargah of Fagu Shah Baba was a shared place of worship for both Hindus and Muslims, and the shrine remained as a symbol of communal harmony for decades.

The complainant, the BJP MLA, claimed that the dargah was misused as people were misled and provoked into making vows, “leading to earnings of lakhs of rupees every Thursday”, Maktoob Media quoted. He also claimed that dozens of women were kept inside the dargah overnight for immoral activities. He thanked the administration for its move and claimed that the land was earmarked for cattle grazing.

Meanwhile, the current MLA from Itwa, who is also a leader of the opposition party Samajwadi Party, said that the demolition of the dargah is an attack on communal harmony. He said that the dargah was centuries old and represented the Hindu-Muslim brotherhood. The BJP government in the state showed a biased approach, destroying it since they wanted to spread hate and deepen the divide between Hindus and Muslims.

Aam Aadmi Party leader Imran Latif said that the BJP wanted to spread poison in society through bulldozers. The BJP government in the state, led by Yogi Adityanath, is targeting a specific community, spreading fear and insecurity among minorities.