Mumbai: Over a month ago, former MP Sambhaji Raje Chhatrapati launched a campaign demanding an “encroachment-free Vishalgad” in Maharashtra. A foot march to the fort, built on a hilltop in the Sahyadri ranges, was planned well in advance. Several organisations, mainly right-wing groups, joined Sambhaji Raje’s clarion call of “chalo Vishalgad” on July 14.
However, even before Sambhaji Raje and his supporters reached the Vishalgad fort, violence broke out in nearby villages. One of the worst-hit was Gajapur village, located around three kilometres away from the base of the fort.
No structure in Gajapur village, including its mosque, is contested to be illegal.
On July 14, a large mob, screaming ‘Jai Bhavani’, ‘Jai Shivaji’ and ‘Jai Shri Ram’, entered Gajapur village and ransacked properties belonging to Muslim families.
“As the mob got closer to the village, we sensed things could go wrong. We simply left everything behind, locked our houses and fled,” says a 45-year-old Muslim woman whose house was ransacked.
When she, her husband and her teenage daughter returned home in the evening, she says, they couldn’t recognise their own house. “The anger of the mob could be seen on each wall of the house. They were equipped with axes,” the woman told The Wire.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.