BANGALORE: Mir Sadiq, whose name is mentioned prominently in Karnataka politics as an example for cunning and betrayal, is now making news after nearly two centuries.
Mir Sadiq was a minister of 'Mysore Tiger' Tipu Sultan, who died fighting the British. In the fourth Anglo-Mysore war in 1799, Mir Sadiq betrayed Tipu Sultan and sided with the British, paving the way for a British victory. This resulted in the killing of Tipu in the Battle of Srirangapatnam.
The bodies of Tipu and his family members were laid to rest in Srirangapatna later. Mir Sadiq's body was also laid to rest in Srirangapatna after his death. According to royal customs, many gardens and a gumbaz were built at the place of his burial.
Historical monuments, including 60 of those belonging to the Tipuage as also the burial place of Mir Sadiq, are under the Waqf Board. Ironically, the land surrounding the tomb of Mir Sadiq is being encroached.
MA Saleem, Deputy Inspector General of Police and the administrator of Waqf Board of Karnataka, has identified the encroachment of properties belonging to the board.
The encroachers have not even spared the land near Mir Sadiq's burial place, which includes gardens and other properties. Saleem told Express that identification of Waqf properties, including many monuments and land in Srirangapatna, had started. Saleem said that the Waqf Board has decided to form a new 'Tipu Waqf Estate' which will have under it all land owned by the Board, including Tipu Sultanage monuments and properties. If the monuments are historically important, we will hand them over to Archeological Society of India (ASI), he said.
He identified about 32,000 properties under the board and that many of them were more or less encroached by land grabbers.
The 600-acre land near Hegde Nagar in Bangalore and the 10-acre land adjacent to Avenue Road in Bangalore, are some of the examples, he said.
He also said that computerisation had been completed in the Waqf Board and that all records were being fed into computers. It is an exercise to secure public properties owned by Waqf Board.