Secretariat mosques demolition: Congress faults Wakf Board

Hyderabad: Congress leaders held a demonstration in front of the Haj House at Nampally accusing the Wakf Board chairman Md Saleem of colluding with State Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar in demolishing two mosques on the premises of Secretariat. The Wakf Board is situated in the Haj House building. Later they also lodged police complaint against the Chairman and other Board members in the local police station.

Led by TPCC Minorities Department Chairman Shaik Abdullah Sohail, senior leaders including Hyderabad City Congress President M Anjan Kumar Yadav, TPCC spokesperson Syed Nizamuddin, Hyderabad Minorities Department Chairman Sameer Waliullah, Nampally in-charge Feroz Khan and others were part of the demonstration. They held placards with slogans condemning the demolition of Secretariat mosques and the inaction by the Wakf Board on the issue. They also raised slogans against the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government and Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao.

Later, they lodged a complaint at the Abids Police Station seeking action against Mohammed Saleem and board members Syed Akber Nizamuddin Hussain, Malik Motasim Khan, Dr Syed Nisar Hussain, Advocate Waheed Ahmed and others. "The Secretariat mosques are notified under the Gazette of Andhra Pradesh on 01-07-1982, in Sl. No.158. Thereby the custodian of the mosques is the Telangana State Wakf Board represented by its chairman Mohammed Saleem. Therefore, the Wakf Board Chairman and other members are collectively responsible for the demolitions. By doing so, they indulged in creating improbability, criminal negligence, criminal conspiracy, hurting religious feelings, inciting communal hatred and violence against the Muslim community," they stated in the complaint lodged with the police.