There are baseless allegations against the Pushkar Singh government of Uttarakhand that it is running bulldozers on the tombs with prejudice, but the truth is something else.

According to the recent decision of the Supreme Court, no religious place can be constructed, reconstructed, or renovated without the permission of the District Collector. This work can be done only after applying to the Collector with a copy of the land document and obtaining permission.

Shyampur is a beautiful village in Uttarakhand. All the people there live their lives happily and peacefully. Suddenly a Fakir comes to the edge of the village and makes a heap of soil, covers it with a sheet, and then builds a hut next to it and starts living there. Now the Fakir or the caretaker of the tomb cajoles the people coming and going from Shyampur and people start bowing their heads there. Increasing the faith of the people, the Khadim in the second phase tells the innocent villagers that if they make a tomb in a small corner of their field, he will come and offer prayers at that tomb and make it holy. Coming under the influence of the Khadim, a villager does the same and makes a tomb in his field and starts lighting a lamp there every day. When the number of people visiting increases, a donation box is kept there. Now the Khadim comes every week and takes money from that donation box. Gradually, the Khadim, with the money of the same villager, gets a tin sheet put on the tomb and gets it built permanently. On one hand, the number of people visiting the tomb increases, on the other hand, some more Muslim families start settling in the village and the tombs also start increasing.

In some places, these criminal Khadims had intimidated innocent villagers into converting their temples into tombs and changing the method of worship. In many places, other Muslim families would settle near these tombs built on private land as friends and after this, all kinds of crimes would start happening there. The innocent tribal and scheduled caste Hindu villagers would see their land and girls slipping away from their hands and would just keep rubbing their hands.

When the Uttarakhand police investigated these tombs, it came to light that an organized gang was active behind this. This gang would make unemployed Muslims wear the clothes of Khadims, teach them a little bit of speaking and exorcism prepare them for land jihad and love jihad, and then carry out such incidents, and would also extract money from people in the name of faith in large amounts.

Hindu brothers would start visiting these tombs in large numbers and offer money, property, jewelry, food grains, fruits, etc. Flourishing with these offerings, the Khadim there kept on opening the second, third, and fourth branches of their Mazar. These Mazars were built in the name of Kalu Shah, Bhure Shah, Bulle Shah, and many more Shahs and after earning money, the criminal Khadim here used to go to the next village and get another Mazar like their “franchise” built.

Pushkar Singh Dhami has demolished more than three hundred illegal tombs following this judicial order. Dhami government has demolished more than fifty such temples and one gurudwara and freed five thousand acres of government land from ‘land jihad’.

The Uttarakhand state government has identified a total of 3,793 such areas till May 2023 where land jihad has been done through tombs. Nainital is surprisingly the top of this vicious circle where fourteen hundred thirty-three places and Haridwar also where eleven hundred and fifty places were encroached upon and occupied with the help of tombs. This story has come to the fore on a large scale in other districts as well. In Uttarakhand, about twelve thousand hectares of land are still with these so-called Khadims with the help of such illegal structures, which have to be freed.

The disturbing aspect of all this is that an atmosphere is being created against the Pushkar Singh government by calling this campaign communal in Uttarakhand. The enlightened, wealthy class and religious leaders of the Muslim society are not criticizing these so-called Khadims who are committing crimes through the shrines but are instead supporting them directly or indirectly for reasons unknown.

I think that as enlightened and peace-loving citizens, leaders and religious leaders of the Muslim society should come forward in this direction and get a fatwa issued against these people who are committing crimes in the name of religion. but instead this, the Muslim community of Uttarakhand is taking an interest in bandhs, dharnas, demonstrations, and processions in support of these criminals, this is a sad situation.

India belongs to all of us. Hence all religions should unite and face these anti-national Jihadis. In the interest of the country, we all should forget our politics, caste, religion, sect, etc, and fight these anti-national elements unitedly.

Jai Matribhoomi.

Article written by and Editorial credit: State Bureau Chief Himanshu Nauriyal.