Abhijit Nath, NET Correspondent, Tripura
Agartala, July 05, 2022: The Sadar sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) under West Tripura district on Tuesday imposed section 144 of CrPC at Thanda Kali Bari area in Nandannagar area in the suburbs of Agartala city over an encroachment of a graveyard used by the people of Muslim community allegedly by a Hindu group.
The Sadar SDM Asim Saha on Tuesday in an order mentioned that he had received a report from the Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) of New Capital Complex regarding prevalence of high tension and apprehension of breach of peace at Nandanagar near the Thanda Kalibari area due to communal disharmony. It is apprehended that there is every possibility of further Law & Order issues.
Saha has requested the SDPO of NCC to promulgate prohibitory orders to maintain Law & Order and impose section 144 of CrPC in the area until further orders.
People of Muslim community blocked a road that connect GBP Hospital and Khayerpur road in the suburbs of Agartala city soon after they accused an Hindutva group of setting up a temple of Lord Shiva in a graveyard overnight. This caused a massive traffic jam and stranded a large number of vehicles for nearly four hours.
The road blockaders demanded to remove the temple and return the land to the minority community. Speaking with reporters, one of the road blockaders said that they (Hindutva Group) have occupied the graveyard where the people of Muslim community are buried after death.
“Yesterday, some miscreants tried to collapse the boundary wall through bulldozer to occupy a portion of the graveyard’s land. We went to the local police station and filed a complaint with all the documents. Our demand is no one should interfere in our graveyard. At night, some people had placed Shiva Linga. He asked priests to know that there are some kinds of rituals to place a Shiva Linga. A section of unruly elements in our society is trying to disturb the prevailing friendship, peace and harmony between Hindu and Muslim communities. Still we demand that the graveyard should not be the victim of any kind of untoward incident in near future”, he added.
Another agitator named Noor Islam said “We demanded several times to demarcate land for our graveyard by the Sadar sub-divisional administration. We have submitted a memorandum to the DCM and Sadar SDM in 2019 and 2020, respectively. Even, memorandum was also submitted to the former Minority Welfare minister Ratanlal Nath. We demanded demarcation of our land. But till now, no step has been initiated by the government.”
Noor also claimed that the activists of the ‘Hindu Yuva Bahini’ brought bulldozer and cleared the graveyard and set up a temple of Lord Shiva overnight. “We demand the administration to initiate measures to maintain the peace and tranquillity and clear the temple as we don’t want to disrupt communal harmony”, the road blockader added.
