A huge flagpost with a saffron flag erected on the road junction named ‘Bharat Chowrasta’ marks the entry of Raidurgam village, which has been witnessing tensions since Sunday after some unidentified miscreants barged into a Masjid premises and performed pooja, leading to communal tensions in the village. Anticipating violence, the roads leading to the conflict zone have been heavily fortified by the police, strictly preventing entry to outsiders.
Qutub Shahi Masjid, located on Survey no. 82 in Manikonda Jagir village, classified as ‘Poramboke Sarkari’, as per documents accessed by TNM, is situated behind the Malkam Cheruvu lake. The size of this Poramboke or commons land, as per official records, is 34 guntas in size. Interestingly, right opposite the Masjid is a Katta Maisamma temple. Katta Maisamma is a village deity. These temples are found abutting the lakes in Telangana and are worshipped mostly by Shudra communities, who pray for lakes to not get breached and damage crops and the village.
On Sunday around 11 am, some unidentified people from Raidurgam village – men and women – broke open the gate of a compound in which the Qutub Shahi Masjid is located. These people sacrificed a goat and performed a pooja in the vicinity of the Masjid. The provocation was caused by the people who are demanding the construction of Katta Maisamma temple in the area allotted to them on the Poromboke land, according to police sources.
Owing to the construction of a 100-feet road in the village, authorities had decided to raze down the temple. However, after protests by the local BJP corporator Sai Baba and others, on March 16 this year, the Ranga Reddy District Collector Amoy Kumar directed the Tahsildar to allot 18 guntas of land in Survey no. 82 which also houses the Masjid, to facilitate the construction of a new temple. But as the land is yet to be demarcated and handed over to the temple seeking group, they claimed ownership of the land and performed the pooja, says a high-ranking police officer.
Following the incident, the police on Monday denied entry to everyone except for those who either wanted to go to the temple or the Masjid. While a few people were seen offering prayers inside the Masjid, they refused to talk to the media. Anticipating sudden activity in the wake of the tensions, some men gathered inside the temple.
Contradictory to the police’s claims, the men gathered at the temple claimed innocence. “We do not know who went inside the Masjid premises and offered pooja. We have nothing to do with it,” says Prabhakar.
Prabhakar claims to be a leader of the fight against the temple demolition. The men gathered at the temple deny any involvement with the pooja incident. According to these men, an issue has been brewing between the Masjid caretakers and the villagers for the past few months, after the local administration erected a compound wall using tin sheets around the ‘Poramboke’ land and in effect gave access to only the Masjid members to use the space.
These men are apprehensive of the Masjid committee’s construction activities and fear that the land promised for the temple will not be given to them. “We do not know when we will be given our land,” says Nikhil Yadav, another resident of Raidurgam who has gathered at the temple.
As a tactic to prompt authorities to expedite the process of handing over the land, these men began constructing a wall surrounding the existing temple.
TNM reached out to the Masjid’s Secretary for his comments on the issue. He however refused to comment, saying that the Waqf Board will address all queries. Following the controversy, the Waqf board is verifying the land details to demarcate the area belonging to them.
Meanwhile, the police have filed a case of trespassing against those who entered the Poramboke land illegally. Raidurgam police inspector N Tirupathi tells TNM that the issue was not politically motivated and says that they are in the process of identifying the people behind the unlawful activity.