Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel-led Congress government had allotted 25 acres land to Pakistan-based Dawat-e-Islami in Raipur. After a massive uproar by the opposition BJP, the allotment has been cancelled.
Raipur: After a massive protest by the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, the Congress government in Chhattisgarh has cancelled the land allotment to Pakistan-based Dawat-e-Islami.
The Bhupesh Baghel government had allotted 25 acres of land to the Pakistan-based Islamist organisation in Raipur.
Senior BJP leader and MLA, who was a cabinet minister in the previous BJP government in the state, Brijmohan Aggarwal alleged that the Islamist organisation has been found involved in multiple cases of terror funding and conversion.
Completing the formalities of the land allotment, the state government had invited objections to the allotment by January 13 and advertised it in all the Raipur-based newspapers.
Karachi-based Dawat-e-Islami, founded in 1981 by Maulana Abu Bilal Muhammad Ilyas Attar, has a presence in over 194 countries of the world. The organisation claims that it only teaches Islam and does social work. It had come under the radar of Pakistani intelligence agencies when its follower Mumtaz Qadri had murdered Pakistan’s Punjab governor Salman Taseer for blasphemy in 2011.
The Bhupesh Baghel government in the state defended itself saying the allotment has been cancelled and an inquiry has been ordered against the officials who had processed the allotment application.
MLA Aggarwal had alleged that many land allotments are pending for over 10 years but the Congress government was in a hurry to process the land allotment application of Dawat-e-Islami which was submitted only last year.
Earlier, in September, the Congress coalition government in Jharkhand had allocated a hall for namaz in the secretariat building.
“The allocation is absolutely wrong. We will demand that this order is taken back and cancelled immediately. The assembly is a temple of democracy. If order is implemented, it’ll no longer remain a temple of democracy. This order is against the spirit of democracy and BJP opposes it”, the leader of Opposition Babulal Marandi had told the Organiser.
The JMM leader and Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren had even justified the decision.
