BHOPAL: Three festivals — Eid-ul-Fitr, Akshaya Tritiya and Parashuram Jayanti — were celebrated within the confines of houses in Khargone town of Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday owing to total curfew imposed in view of the three festivals coinciding.
Devouts offered namaz within their homes, as police and administration vehicles blaring sirens stayed mobile across the riot hit town throughout Tuesday. But despair and misery overshadowed festivities of Muslim families whose houses had been demolished in the last few days by the local administration as part of action against encroachments and the “illegal properties”, including those of rioters.
In the worst-hit Sanjay Nagar locality, small dairy business owner Shahdullah Beg and his graduate wife Parveen Beg along with four kids, will never want to remember this Eid. A major part of their house was demolished after the violence from April 10 without any prior notice.
Elsewhere in Khargone town, Ateeq Ali, is among two Muslim traders who have petitioned the MP High Court against the demolition of their properties on April 12. These traders are perplexed as they were served notices by local authorities after the demolition was conducted and not before.
The HC has issued notices to the state government and police, asking to file a reply in four to six weeks.
Ateeq owns the Waqt Restaurant, a part of which was demolished on April 12. “The administration served me a notice 14 days later on April 26. Our only hope is the court, to which we’ve pleaded for getting the due compensation for our damage,” Ateeq said.