"It is very sad": Rajasthan Jamaat-E-Islami president raises concern over petition claiming Ajmer Sharif dargah as temple

Dec 02, 2024

Jaipur (Rajasthan) [India], December 3 : Mohammad Nazimuddin, President of Jamaat-E-Islami Hind Rajasthan, on Monday expressed concern after a lower court in Rajasthan accepted a petition claiming the 800-year-old Ajmer Sharif Dargah to be a temple.
"It is very sad that the application has been submitted by the court and also issued a notice. It is a 800-year old shrine. It is known world wide," he said.
He further remarked that Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, a revered Sufi figure, served the people, and people of all faiths hold him in high esteem.
"Our biggest objection is that the lower courts have accepted such applications," Nazimuddin expressed concern.
A Rajasthan court had accepted a petition submitted by the Hindu Sena, claiming that Ajmer Sharif Dargah is a Shiva temple.
AIMIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Sunday said that the Places of Worship [Special Provisions] Act, 1991 needs to be followed. The Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act prohibits changing the character of religious places from how they existed on August 15, 1947.
"Ajmer Sharif dargah represents the secular nature of India... Not just Ajmer Sharif dargah, but Salim Chishti dargah is also under scanner. Places of worship act needs to be followed," Asaduddin Owaisi told reporters.
Earlier this month, a local court in Ajmer directed that notices be issued to three parties in a civil suit claiming that there is a Shiva temple in the Dargah of Sufi saint Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer, according to the plaintiff's advocate.