BHOPAL: People were in for a rude shock hearing the clamping of curfew in a few parts of the city on Sunday morning. The whole exercise was done to prevent communal clash over possession of a 30,000 square feet land by an RSS affiliated trust, which on Sunday started erecting fence on it. The Bhopal district administration imposed curfew in Hanumanganj, Tila Jamalpura and Gautam Nagar police station areas of the Old city and clamped prohibitory orders in some other areas as a precautionary measure over construction work by Keshv Nidam Trust. The order, issued by Bhopal District Magistrate Avinash Lavania, said a community is carrying out construction work in the Old city and there is a possibility of opposition by locals. Bhopal is ‘sensitive from a communal point of view’, hence the decision to impose curfew has been taken, the order said.
Besides, prohibitory orders under CrPC Sec 144 have been imposed in 11 other police station areas - Shahjahanabad, Chhola Mandir, Nishatpura, Talaiya, Mangalwara, Ashoka Garden, Aishbagh, Jahangirabad, Station Bajaria, Berasia and Najirabad. The land was gifted to RSS-affiliated Keshv Nidam Trust. Waqf Board had staked its claim on the land and the matter was taken to the court. Recently, the court gave verdict in favour of the trust and appointed a receiver for the land. Recently, the receiver was removed clearing decks for possession of land by trust. The members of trust on Sunday started erecting fences around the plot. DIG Irshad Wali said, “After the High Court decision, trust is constructing boundary wall over 30,000-sqft land. Administration has imposed curfew just to avoid any untoward incident.” While people remained indoors on the weekend, the business establishments were shut down. Around 4,000 security personnel were deployed on Hamidia Road, Chhola Road, Sindhi Colony. On Saturday night itself, the roads, streets were heavily barricaded but people thinking that it was done for the approaching Republic Day, had no clue what was in store for them the next day.