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Illegal structures built around Afzal Khan’s tomb in Satara demolished
An unauthorised structure built on government land around tomb of Afzal Khan, the commander of the Adil Shahi dynasty of Bijapur, was demolished by the Satara district administration on Thursday morning Afzal Khan was killed by Maratha king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj near the Pratapgarh Fort in Maharashtra’s Satara district and a tomb had been built there in his memory
An unauthorised structure built on government land around tomb of Afzal Khan, the commander of the Adil Shahi dynasty of Bijapur, was demolished by the Satara district administration on Thursday morning
Afzal Khan was killed by Maratha king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj near the Pratapgarh Fort in Maharashtra’s Satara district and a tomb had been built there in his memory. The demolition exercise started in the early hours of Thursday amid heavy police bandobast.
Satara Collector Ruchesh Jaiwanshi said, “We have removed the illegal structures such as permanent rooms built around the Afzal Khan tomb premises. The action has been taken as per orders of the High Court and directions given by the state government. The unauthorised structure was spread between 15 to 20 guntha land,”
Some portions of the land belongs to the forest department while some parcels belong to the revenue department, he added.
The demolition took place on the day Khan was killed by the legendary Maratha king in 1659. It is observed as `Shivpratap Din’ by some organizations in Maharashtra.
“There were demands (of removal of encroachment) from `Shiv-premis’ (Shivaji Maharaj’s followers) but when they staged protests, cases were registered against them and the encroachment was never removed. Today, it is a matter of satisfaction for everyone that the entire encroachment has been removed,” deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis said.
There was a demand to remove the encroachments around the tomb since 2006 and right wing organisations had carried out several agitations to the effect. For the past 26 years, section 144 has been imposed and since then a thick security has been deployed around the tomb. In 2017 the high court had ordered removal of the unauthorised structures but the order was never implemented. On Thursday, the state government carried out a sudden drive to remove unauthorised structures. In 2006, a blanket ban was imposed on the visitors to the tomb.
