Excelsior Correspondent
MENDHAR, June 23: Tension gripped the Ari village in Mendhar Sub Division of district Poonch after a member from the majority community grabbed nearly 12 kanals of land belonging to local cremation ground of the minority community.
Reports said that one Sarfraz Ahmed, son of Mohd Bashir, resident of Ari, who is working as temporary employee in PHE Department , started raising fencing on the village common land left for cremation ground for the last many decades. Some members of the minority community objected to the land grabbing act of Sarfraz but he continued his work with some local support without bothering for anybody.
The minority community families then took up the matter with the president Sanatan Dharam Sabha, VHP and Bajrang Dal members at Mendhar. SD Sabha president Satish Sharma, Beopar Mandal president Devinder Kumar Tandon, RSS leader Vikas Sawhney and several others rushed to the Ari village.
SDPO Mendhar, Shahid Nahim and SHO Anzir Mir sensing possible communal clash rushed to the village and intervened. They also called revenue staff Tehsildar and Naib Tehsildar concerned but they did not turn up there. On the directions of DC Poonch then, entire fencing was removed and the grabbed land was retrieved. Even some elderly members of the majority community at the village said that there was nearly 25 kanals of the cremation ground land lying for the last many decades and no body dared to grab this land. They also condemned the action of Sarfraz. With the timely action of police the tension was defused. The locals demanded that action should also be taken against revenue staff who connived with the land grabber.
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