Reporters were jolted out of their reverie on Sunday when news came in that a tunnel has been unearthed while labourers were clearing a graveyard in view of 'Shab-e-Baraat', which Muslims observe by visiting the graves of their ancestors and praying for the departed souls.
The reporters were startled to learn that the 'tunnel' is believed to lead to a treasure horde in the nearby
Purani Haveli Palace.
The 'tunnel' was unearthed at the site of a dargah, part of the 300-year-old Masjid Hazrath Shah Lagun, beside the AP Administrative Tribunal in Purani Haveli. The 'tunnel' turned out to be an old grave measuring around 2ft by 2ft.
Investigations by reporters led them to believe that a recent 'Masjid Committee' imposed on the dargah and the masjid deliberately planted the reports of the tunnel to weaken a case which the legally-recognised 'Mutawalli' has filed against the Wakf Board.
The Wakf Board had, in June, formed a committee to supervise the day-to-day affairs of the masjid and the dargah, even though there were no complaints against the Mutawalli.
The 'tunnel' was claimed by the committee to have been leading to the nearby Purani Haveli, but fact is that it leads to some murkier going-on between the recently-imposed committee and the Wakf Board officials.
The question which came up foremost is why has the Waqf Board is so involved in the affairs of a small, old masjid, especially when there have been no complaints against the management of the Mutawalli.
Another shocking aspect of the murky case is that, according to a case pending before the courts, the masjid and the dargah are the Mutawalli's private property. This was also agreed by the Wakf Board which chose not to contest the Mutawalli's claim to absolute ownership in Court in 1992.
The Mutawalli, Syed Shah Sharfuddin Ali Quadri, says that in late June, the Wakf Board appointed a committee and gave it charge of the day-to-day management of the dargah and the masjid, without informing him.
Quadri further says that he suspects the role of some local people who have an eye on the property adjoining the masjid and the dargah.
The fact remains that the Muslim Wakf Board owns around lakhs of crores of properties in the state. The Wakf Board officials are accused of being apathetic towards their duties time and time again, to the extent that the entire Muslim community is suffering.
Sharfuddin's claim, of a nexus between the local 'land-grabbers' and some officials of the Wakf Board to encroach on not only on his private property but also on a place of worship, sounds more credible after taking into account the apathetic attitude of the Wakf Board officials in protecting the land entrusted to it by the Muslim community.
The Mutawalli says that the tunnel is only a pretext to remove him permanently from the masjid and the dargah.
The Wakf Board officials are alleged to be corrupt, and this has been proved time and time again, with even
the Chief Executive Officer being caught red-handed while accepting a bribe.
Courtesy: INN