The 150-year-old dargah of Fagu Shah Baba in Domariyaganj town of Uttar Pradesh’s Siddharthnagar district was demolished on Tuesday by the local administration following a complaint from former BJP MLA Raghvendra Pratap Singh, who alleged that the shrine was illegally built on government grazing land.
Led by ADM Gaurav Srivastava and ASP Prashant Kumar, the demolition was carried out under heavy police deployment, with media and the public barred from entering the area, which was secured and placed under high alert by the authorities.
According to reports, the demolished shrine of Fagu Shah Baba had been a shared place of worship for both Hindus and Muslims for decades, seen by many as a symbol of communal harmony.
MLA Raghvendra Pratap Singh claimed that the dargah was being misused, stating, “At that so-called shrine, people were misled and provoked into making vows, leading to earnings of lakhs of rupees every Thursday.”
He further alleged, “Dozens of women were misled and kept overnight for immoral activities.”
Singh thanked the administration for acting swiftly and demolishing the structure, saying, “We also thank the administration for swiftly investigating and demolishing the illegally constructed shrine, as the land was originally designated for cattle grazing.”
“If Yogi Adityanath were not the Chief Minister, such large-scale actions would not have been possible,” he said.
Former Speaker and current Samajwadi Party MLA from Itwa, Mata Prasad Pandey, called the demolition of Fagu Shah Baba’s shrine an attack on communal harmony.
This story was originally published in maktoobmedia.com. Read the full story here.
