A Ibhrahim Sheriff and S Ayub Sherif, residing at Alandur, stated that they were entering the dargah on Friday for prayers when the armyman stopped them and sought their identity cards.
According to their complaint with the St Thomas Mount police, a quarrel broke out between them and the guard, identified by them as one Shajith, when they refused to show him the ID cards as they are regular visitors to the dargah and that none had asked them for the ID cards. “We asked him to let us in as it was already late for the prayers when he got angry and termed us as terrorists,” they said in the complaint.
Army officials could not be contacted for comments on the allegations. A police officer said the complaint was received at the station. “Ibhrahim and Ayub have said that the armyman prevented them from entering the dargah. We’ve made a CSR (community service register) entry on the complaint, but no FIR has been filed,” the officer said.
The dargah at Army’s land at Alandur has been in a controversy in the last few months as objections were raised to a board put up by Army warning against trespassing. Recently, an under-construction prayer hall adjacent to the dargah was also demolished mysteriously overnight.
Nazir, whose family is taking care of the supposedly 700-year-old dargah, said the Army is suddenly imposing restrictions on visitors to the dargah. “I was there when the quarrel broke out between the two devotees who had come to the dargah on Friday. The Army man verbally abused them, and at one point, he called them terrorists. I had to pacify them so that things don’t turn ugly. I don’t understand why they have suddenly started asking ID cards for those who come to pray here,” he said.
via The New Indian Express ,
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