Shia Waqf Board orders its caretakers to get its properties vacated from Sunni Muslims

New Delhi: Dispute over the waqf properties between Shia and Sunni communities has taken a new turn with Uttar Pradesh Shia Central Waqf Board asking all its Mutawwali (caretakers) to get such properties vacated from the Sunni community which are being misused by them.

It is alleged that the community is not only harming the property but also misusing them even they are being used for the wrong purposes. However, due to fear of peace getting disturb, the government and police are not interfering into the matter. The letter is with One India.

Uttar Pradesh Shia Waqf Board chairman Syed Wasim Rizvi told OneIndia gross misuse of waqf properties is happening in Uttar Pradesh. They are being illegally sold, they are forcefully occupied and in some cases they are becoming shelters of outlaws.

"I have asked all the caretakers of such properties which is around 50,000 in Uttar Pradesh to get immediately vacated from Sunni tenets and submit the report about all such properties in three months time," said Rizvi.

He further said that as per a survey report out of 222 Shia Waqf properties 180 was illegally sold by Sunni tenant without any knowledge of caretaker or in some cases connivance of the caretaker. They are illegal occupants of disputed site at Ramjanmabhumi which is a Shia waqf property.

There is one Imambara in Lakimpur Khiri district in Uttar Pradesh which is forcefully occupied by them and Qawwali is performed which is against the Shia tradition and despite court order Qawwali could not be stopped there as the administration shows its helplessness by saying that it will destroy peace of the region.

However, Sunni Central Waqf Board chairman Zafar Ahmed Farooqui refused to give any comment on the issue. He said that Islamic scholars would be able to give better comment.

On the other hand a Sunni scholar from Darul Uloom Deoband Mufti Afroz Alam Qasmi told One India that it is absolutely wrong as such property is not for Shia, Sunni or Barelwi but for the welfare of humanity as such. So this is just to cause confusion and enmity among the different sects of Islam.

Qasmi further said that if a property is given for waqf it is used for educational institution then anyone can use it for its betterment. If a well is on the waqf property it does not mean water is for any particular class.