By SABRANGINDIA
The Vishalgad-Kolhapur violence that erupted on July 14 has left multiple Muslim families of the Gajapur village helpless and distraught, with not even a pair of clothes to change during the rainy reason. On July 14, a Sunday, disturbing visuals of a Mosque being demolished emerged from Maharashtra’s Kolhapur district. A video from the ground showed a group of men belonging to an extremist Hindutva mob climbing atop a Mosque holding saffron flags and vandalising a Mosque with hammers. The video showed mobs of people standing upon the Mosque and planting a saffron flag on it. While the police rushed to the spot of the mob demolition to get a hold of the situation as the Mosque was being demolished, a mob of thousands entered the Gajapur village and wreaked havoc. As per on-ground reports, approximately 50-60 houses and shops belonging to the Muslim community were attacked, torched and loot by the mob.
Activists from the ground have now shared the plight of the locals of the Gajapur village, the worst violence hit village during the whole incident, wherein the women and children had to flee towards the nearby forest area and the fields to save themselves from the large mob of people. As told by Megha Pansare to SabrangIndia, fearing violence, the locals had to hide in the forest along with their children as the mob came bearing knives and other weapons. It is only because the locals went into hiding rather than trying to save their belonging were they able to save themselves. However, as per the report in Maktoob Media, at least 40 Muslims, including children, were attacked in the incident. Additionally, the mob caused major damage to their material belongings, with their houses burnt, food thrown or destroyed, and vehicles ransacked. Upon returning from their hiding spots, the residents of the village that is on the foothills of the fort, found themselves rid of all their belongings, houses, vehicles, books, and food. As per Pansare, activist and daughter-in-law of the slain Govind Pansare, the women do not even have a pair of clothes and everything they owned had been destroyed. Even the holy book of Quran has been destroyed and thrown in the mud. Megha Pansare is Assistant Professor in Russian language at the Shivaji University, Kolhapur. She is also an activist of CPI, now holds the position of President, Kolhapur District, National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW).
How did it begin?
Since the past one year, a campaign is being run by the certain Hindu right-wing outfits to “free” the historic Vishalgad fort of “encroachment”. Calling it ‘Vishalgad Anti-Encroachment Movement,’ Sambhaji Raje Chhatrapati, former Rajya Sabha MP and descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, and his supporters in Kolhapur have been mounting pressure on authorities to remove “illegal encroachments” at the Vishalgad fort.
The violence erupted after former Rajya Sabha MP Sambhaji Raje called upon his supporters to march to the Vishalgarh fort in a bid to protest against the inaction of the authorities over illegal encroachments on Sunday, July 14. The fort is located in Shahuwadi of Kolhapur district, about 75 kms from Kolhapur city.
As clarified by Shakir Tamboli, a member of the Indian National Congress and an activist, thousands of people had gathered after the call against “encroachment” was made by Sambhaji Raje. The police present near the fort did not allow such a big gathering to take to the Vishalgad Fort, pursuant to which the mob that was returning from the Fort resorted to violence.
As per the report in Maktoob Media, ahead of Sambhajiraje’s arrival at the fort around 9:40 am, a mob of his supporters had already started with stone-pelting on a mosque, Rehman Malik Dargah, and attacking local Muslim residents in the vicinity. Some vandals also allegedly chanted ‘Jai Shri Ram’ outside the mosque and raised objectionable slogans. It is essential to note that the said Mosque was on the way to Vishalgad fort, but was 6 km away from the fort.
This story was originally published in sabrangindia.in. Read the full story here.