@the_news_21
Mumbai: The Satara district administration on Thursday demolished illegal structures erected on government land around the tomb of Afzal Khan, the 17th century general of the Adil Shahi dynasty of the Bijapur kingdom.
The demolishing of the illicit structures around Afzal Khan’s tomb, situated near the historic Pratapgad fort (close to the hill-station of Mahabaleshwar), commenced on Thursday morning amid heavy security deployment.
Leaders from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as well as some right-wing organisations hailed the move, calling the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government as the true adherents of ‘Hindutva’ principles and one that had the courage to finally implement the Bombay High Court’s order authorizing the demolition.
According to sources, section 144 of the CrPC was imposed around the fort area and internet services temporarily suspended during the anti-encroachment drive while a heavy security cover of more than 1,000 policemen was deployed in order to prevent any untoward incident from happening.
Afzal Khan was a formidable and dreaded adversary of the nascent Maratha kingdom, was killed by Chhatrapati Shivaji near Pratapgad fort in November 1659. Shivaji’s daring exploit and the subsequent battle of Pratapgad (believed to have taken place on November 10) has since been widely celebrated in Marathi ballads and folklore and forms a centrepiece in the career of the illustrious warrior king.
The tombs of Khan and his bodyguard, an expert swordsman by the name of Sayyid Banda (who was slain by Shivaji’s lieutenant Jiva Mahala) lie close to the fort.
Reacting to the development, Satara Guardian Minister Shambhuraj Desai stated, “The government has acted as per the High Court and Supreme Court’s orders. The courts had ordered the demolition of illicit constructions. Accordingly, the district administration has started the work of rooting out the encroachments. The original grave (Afzal Khan’s tomb) has not been disturbed. We have not touched the main structures.”
According to Shambhuraj Desai, there were around 19 unauthorized rooms that had been erected near Afzal Khan’s tomb, all of which would be demolished.
Since the late 1990s, right-wing groups have been commemorating a ‘Shiv Pratap Din’ on November 10 (which was banned by previous Congress-NCP governments) to celebrate the exploit of Shivaji killing Afzal Khan. Some of the groups had been calling for the demolition of the Khan’s tomb itself.
The right-wing groups have been decrying the illegal structures, contending that they glorified Afzal Khan – an enemy of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and the idea of Swarajya – by trying to turn his tomb into a shrine.
The anti-encroachment drive took a political colour, with State BJP President Chandrashekhar Bawankule and MLA Nitesh Rane welcoming the move and accusing the erstwhile Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government of failing to carry out the court’s orders.
Bawankule remarked, “Uddhav Thackeray did not take this step under pressure from his MVA allies – the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress…I congratulate the Shinde-Fadnavis government for having taken this step and restoring the glory of Pratapgad. Had the government not done so, then there would have been more illegal encroachments.”
BJP MLA Nitesh Rane and son of Union Minister Narayan Rane, said that despite the courts having ordered the demolition of the illegal structures, no government prior to this had the courage to take this step.
The Hindu Mahasangh went further and demanded that the Shinde-Fadnavis government order the demolition of the Khan’s tomb. Anand Dave, president of the Hindu Mahasangh stated, “Be it (Mughal Emperor) Aurangzeb or Afzal Khan, they were enemies of Hindutva, of Maharashtra and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. The government should now demolish their cemeteries as they have no business being in our state.”
