Sambhal administration restores land to Hindu families who had fled after 1978 riots

Lucknow: Forty seven years after they abandoned their homes and land and fled after some of their family members were killed in the communal riots, three Hindu families were restored possession of their lands by the Sambhal administration on Tuesday.

According to the reports, the three Hindu families, which got the possession of around ten thousand square feet of land in a Muslim dominated area, had fled during the 1978 communal riots in the town.

Sambhal additional district magistrate Vandana Mishra said that the three families had approached the district administration claiming that they were forced to flee from the locality after one of their family members was killed in the riot in 1978 and that their lands had been illegally occupied by the Muslims.

Mishra said that the administration, acting on the complaint, measured the land and it was found that around ten thousand square feet of land was illegally occupied. ‘’One Dr Shevaz has constructed a school on the land,’’ she added.

The officials said that the school manager failed to show the registration deed of the land. ‘’Possession of the land has been restored to the three families,’’ Mishra said.

One of the complainants, Asha Devi said that she and other members of the family had fled Mohalla Jagat during the 1978 riots after one of the members was killed in the riot. ‘’We shifted to Chandausi.....we tried to take possession of the land afterwards but we were chased away by the occupiers,’’ she added.

Another complainant Amarish Kumar said that his grandfather was killed in the Sambhal communal riots in 1978 after which his family had fled from there. ‘’We had land behind the Roadways bus station which was occupied by others,’’ he said.

Sources said that the officials expected more people to come forward with similar complaints in the days to come and added that the administration was trying to identify the illegally occupied lands in the Muslim dominated areas.

Sambhal had witnessed large-scale violence in November last year during a court mandated survey of the Jama Masjid in which four people were killed and scores others injured.