Hindu groups clamour for using Bengaluru's Eidgah maidan, calls for bandh

Bengaluru: Right-wing Hindu groups in central Bengaluru clamped a shutdown on Tuesday with the demand of accessing the controversial Eidgah maidan to hold Hindu festivals.

The bustling Chamarajpet area of the city looked deserted after most shops downed their shutters responding to the "bandh" announced by the Chamarajapet Nagareekara Okkoota Vedike, according to The News Minute.

The outfit " Vedike" emerged only recently on July 3 raising the demand for holding Hindu festivals at the maidan where Eid prayers are held twice a year.

None of the protesters, according to the portal, admitted to having clear affiliation to any outfit. Instead, one protesters chanted that the land is theirs and they will fight for it.

In the beginning, only 15 members of the Sri Rama Sena turned up chanting slogans like 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai', before more protesters began milling about to observe a sit-in protest.

Later the police forcibly removed the protesters from the scene in buses to an undisclosed location, according to the report.

The Eidgah maidan, where Muslims congregate for Eid prayers twice annually, is emerging as a centre of communal tension in Karnataka.

The place is in the midst of in an ownership tussle for the last three weeks between the BBMP, Karnataka Wakf Board with the Central Muslim Association and the Bengaluru Police.

The Board claims that the land was given to them by royal family of Mysure and Central Muslim Association manages it as a registered wakf property.

BBMP officials counters Wakf Board's claims, arguing that the land belonged to their West division except on the days when the Muslim observe Eid prayers.