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For 26 years, Muslim neighbours cared for this temple

Twenty-six years later, his Muslim neighbours still keep this shrine and cleaning it everyday.

About a kilometer down the road leading to Laddhewala in the city of Muzaffarnagar, a dirty signpost welcomes visitors to this small, undescribed place. Soon, the lanes begin to get narrower, about 4 feet long, between rows of concrete houses. In one sleepy corner of an alleyway, crowded between two houses, there is alone temple sometime in the early 1990s left behind by its Hindu households, after the demolition of the Babri Masjid. 

Twenty-six years later, his Muslim neighbours still keep this shrine, who clean it daily, whitewash it every Diwali, and protect it from squatters and stray animals. Meharbaan Ali, 60, a Muslim-dominated Laddhewala resident, still remembers the days after the communal clashes that the Hindu families left the area.

 

For 26 years, Muslim neighbours cared for this temple“Jitender Kumar was one of those friends I had close to. Despite the tension I have been trying to stop him from leaving. Nonetheless, along with many other relatives, he left with the hope that some day they would return. Since then the temple has been taken care of by residents here, “he said,

There are about 35 Muslim families living in the locality and many, like Ali and other muslim neighbours, are hopeful that their Hindu neighbors will return. Locals said that at that time about 20 Hindu families lived here, and the temple was built about 1970. “The shrine is cleaned regularly, and occasionally painted its walls. We want them to come back and take care of this,” said another resident, Zaheer Ahmad.

Nadeem Khan, a former member of the local municipal council, said, “Each year local people pool in money ahead of Diwali to get it whitewashed. They make it a point of keeping it clean every day. “There’s no idol in the temple though. “I used to have one before 1992. They took the idol with them, too, when the families left, “added Ahmad, who lives next to the shrine. Gulzar Siddiqui, Pappu Bhai, Kayyuam Ahmed, Naushad, Zahid Ahmed and Maksood Ahmed attend to the temple today.

“No Hindu family lives here but they will lose trust in us if we let anyone harm their place of worship.
We don’t want this to happen which is why we’re looking after the shrine,” Siddiqui said. TOI had previously documented how a 59-year-old Hindu mason took charge of a 120-year old mosque in Muzaffarnagar’s Nanheda village.The village, which is located about 40 km from the district headquarters, does not have a single Muslim family.

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