UP: 2 Muslims donate land to avoid repeat of 2019 clashes

BAREILLY: To ensure that violent communal clashes -- like the one that shook Bareilly three years ago -- do not repeat, two elderly Muslim men handed over 300 sq mt of land to the administration permanently so that kanwarias could pass through peacefully from a route that doesn’t touch a mosque or cut across an area densely populated by Muslims.
In 2019, police had booked about 70 “rioters” after Hindus and Muslims fought over a kanwaria route passing through a congested, minority-populated area, the Shikarpur Choudhary village, with a mosque along the way. On Thursday, a meeting was therefore called by the police and the district administration to ensure law and order this time around.
It was then that two cousins — Rashid Khan and Mohammed Ismail -- decided to offer their land for the kanwar yatra.
ADM (city) RD Pandey said, “We offered to pay them but they wanted none of it. They said they would like to donate the land to maintain communal harmony and peace.”
Khan told TOI, "We wanted to resolve this issue once and for all. Since it was for the sake of longlasting peace and to avoid dispute, we decided to give it at no cost."
Two years ago, too, the kanwar yatra was stopped near the mosque in the area after a few men in the procession raised slogans and allegedly played "objectionable" songs. Residents of Shikarpur Choudhary village protested and members of both communities were at loggerheads.
Heavy force had to be deployed by the police to control the situation.
After the suspension of the kanwar yatra for two years because of Covid, the district administration geared up this year to ensure order and a meeting was called where ADM Pandey along with SP (traffic) Ram Mohan Singh met residents of the village.
Pandey said, “We asked them to provide a solution as there was no alternative route. Two men came forward and offered their land so that kanwarias could use. It was a great gesture on their part. They have now provided us with a route which passes through farmland and skirts the mosque.”