Vijayawada: Muslims roundtable meet plans to protect Wakf properties in State

Vijayawada: Representatives from various Muslim organisations on Monday planned to launch an agitation to protect Wakf properties in the State. The representatives expressed serious concern over the encroachment of Wakf properties and alleged the encroachments were taking place due to connivance of some members in the Wakf Board.

A roundtable meeting was organised under the auspices of Muslim Joint Action Committee (JAC) and Muslim Thinkers Forum at MBVK Bhavan on Monday. Addressing the meeting, Muslim JAC convener Muneer Ahmed said there was 3 lakh acres of land under the Wakf Board in 1956 in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh and now, 85 per cent of the land was encroached.

He alleged some former members in Wakf Board has been trying to encroach the valuable lands in Nunna, Ganguru, Nellore, Rayachoti, Kurnool and other areas in the State.

He demanded the State government to conduct a judicial inquiry on the encroachments of Wakf Board lands in the State.

The roundtable meeting also decided to constitute a committee for the protection of Wakf properties in the State.

Muslim Thinkers Forum (MTF) convener Yazdani (AS Danny) said attacks on Muslims increased in the country since the BJP came into power second time under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He alleged the Union government has been trying to harass the Muslims and Dalits in the country and been targeting them.

He said the people of India had achieved the civil rights, labour rights and human rights after prolong struggle but the Union government was eager to suppress the rights of people.

He said the Centre enacted a law criminalising the triple Talaq and been scrapping the citizenship of Muslims by enacting new laws in North Eastern states.

He said many Muslims became victims of mob lynching incidents and demanded that the government take strong action against the culprits. Muslim Advocates Association secretary Abdul Mateen, representatives of various organisations S A Subhan, Shaik Mohiddin, Omar Farooq, Hasan Sharif, B Inayatulla Khan and others spoke on the occasion. Leaders of various Muslim organisations participated in the meeting and expressed concern over increasing mob lynching incidents in several parts of country.