Ahmedabad: Ahmedabad police on Thursday arrested 37 people involved in stone-pelting and vandalism at the 600-year-old Pirana Dargah, a shrine revered by two communities, Considered a model of community harmony.
The arrests were related to clashes between two groups that broke out in Ahmedabad on the evening of May 7, hours after polling for the Gujarat Lok Sabha elections ended.
Ahmedabad (rural) police chief Om Prakash Jat said tensions erupted after a group alleged vandalism of graves and mazhars of saints were also targeted. .
Stone-throwing and vandalism led to the destruction of some graves and statues and minor injuries to about six police officers, police said.
The campus of the shrine managed by the Sufi saint Pir Imam Shabawa Trust originally included shrines dedicated to his four grandsons and a granddaughter, a mosque named after him and the burial of Syed, a descendant of Pir Imam Shabawa ‘s cemetery.
Pira Nadargah has long been a place of harmonious worship by Hindus and Muslims who call themselves ‘Satpanthi’.
However, recent disputes surrounding the shrine’s identity have stoked tensions. In August last year, Hindu followers of Pir Imam Shah Bawa renamed the Sufi saint as Sadhguru Hanst Maharaj, a move that sparked outrage among local Sais. There was strong opposition from the Muslim descendants of the saint from the German community. They accused Hindus of trying to “saffron” holy sites and fasted in protest. Hindu trustees believe that the name “Hanstej Maharaj” has been associated with the saint in the Bible for over 4,000 years.
On January 30, 2022, around 200 laborers, accompanied by a heavy police personnel, reached the premises and started building a wall inside the compound to separate the graveyard, graveyard and mosque.
The Muslim trustees of Imamshah Bawa Roza Sansthan submitted a representation to the authorities opposing the alleged efforts to convert the dargah into a Hindu religious place. They cited examples of posters of the deity being put up on mausoleums and the erection of a hoarding depicting the shrine as a temple with the words “Om Shree Sadguru Hanstejji Maharaj Akhand Divyajyoti Mandir”.
The dispute was filed in the Gujarat High Court and the Sunni People’s Forum filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in 2022, citing the Places of Worship Act, 1991. The PIL alleged that the dargah was being converted into a temple and an idol of the deity was being installed in violation of the trust scheme and provisions of the Act.
Satpanthi trustees, who form a majority in the committee governing the Imamshah Bawa Roza Trust, have been accused of depriving Muslims of their religious rights and pir Imamshah Bawa Roza Trust (Pir Imamshah Bawa) is depicted as a Hindu saint.