FIR against illegal nursery in Karbala

An FIR was registered at Lodi Colony police station on Thursday against three people for allegedly running an unauthorised nursery on Karbala land belonging to dargah Shah-e-Mardana and for desecration of some graves within it.

An FIR was registered at Lodi Colony police station on Thursday against three people for allegedly running an unauthorised nursery on Karbala land belonging to dargah Shah-e-Mardana and for desecration of some graves within it.

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The issue of the alleged unauthorised occupation of a large chunk of land on Karbala ground has been hanging fire for several years.

The Anjuman-e-Haideri, which manages the dargah and the surrounding properties that have heritage structures, has claimed that the disputed land is wakf property and has been misappropriated by the occupants.

The FIR — of which HT has a copy — was finally registered on Thursday following a complaint by Bahadur Abbas Naqvi, wakf secretary for the Anjuman-e-Haideri.

The disputed land has had a long legal history since the lease of the occupants had expired way back in the early 2000s.

In the meantime, the new management of the Anjuman trust took over the affairs of the dargah and surrounding properties.

Apart from the ‘unauthorised’ occupants, the FIR also contains the names of a few members of the trust’s previous governing body, who allegedly connived with the people running the Rajdhani Nursery and Evergreen Nursery on the Karbala land for “violating the sanctity of the holy place”.

“The accused person(s) and their associates in course of their commercial activity are continuously desecrating old graves by allowing people to walk over them with their footwear on.

They, in fact, allow people to take bath and urinate in and around the area of burial ground,” the FIR said. The police said they would question the accused.