A huge flagpost with a saffron flag erected on the road junction named ‘Bharat Chowrasta’ marks the entry of Raidurgam village, which has been witnessing tensions since Sunday after some unidentified miscreants barged into a Masjid premises and performed pooja, leading to communal tensions in the village. Anticipating violence, the roads leading to the conflict zone have been heavily fortified by the police, strictly preventing entry to outsiders.
Qutub Shahi Masjid, located on Survey no. 82 in Manikonda Jagir village, classified as ‘Poramboke Sarkari’, as per documents accessed by TNM, is situated behind the Malkam Cheruvu lake. The size of this Poramboke or commons land, as per official records, is 34 guntas in size. Interestingly, right opposite the Masjid is a Katta Maisamma temple. Katta Maisamma is a village deity. These temples are found abutting the lakes in Telangana and are worshipped mostly by Shudra communities, who pray for lakes to not get breached and damage crops and the village.
On Sunday around 11 am, some unidentified people from Raidurgam village – men and women – broke open the gate of a compound in which the Qutub Shahi Masjid is located. These people sacrificed a goat and performed a pooja in the vicinity of the Masjid. The provocation was caused by the people who are demanding the construction of Katta Maisamma temple in the area allotted to them on the Poromboke land, according to police sources.
Owing to the construction of a 100-feet road in the village, authorities had decided to raze down the temple. However, after protests by the local BJP corporator Sai Baba and others, on March 16 this year, the Ranga Reddy District Collector Amoy Kumar directed the Tahsildar to allot 18 guntas of land in Survey no. 82 which also houses the Masjid, to facilitate the construction of a new temple. But as the land is yet to be demarcated and handed over to the temple seeking group, they claimed ownership of the land and performed the pooja, says a high-ranking police officer.
This story was originally published in thenewsminute.com . Read the full story here