The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
Musharraf family’s ancestral land in Baghpat village goes under the hammer
IN THE middle of a vast stretch of barren farmland, with crosscrossing high- tension wires above, a notice from the Ministry of Home Affairs reads, “This enemy property, Plot no. 1078, Village Kotana Bangar, Tehsil Baraut, District Baghpat is directed for sale through e- auction.”
This 13 bighas of land, a kilometer away from the village settlement is different from other pieces of land that have ever been sold in Kotana.
It is the last patch of land in Uttar Pradesh that belongs to the ancestors of Pakistan’s former President Pervez Musharraf. The auction for the patch of land will continue until Thursday midnight.
“The land does not directly belong to Musharraf,” said SubDivisional Magistrate, Baraut, Amar Verma.
“His father, Syed Mushrrafuddin and mother Zarin Begum stayed in Kotana before shifting to Delhi, where Musharraf was born,” said Verma.
In Delhi, the family stayed in Daryaganj’s Neher Vali Haveli, near Golcha Cinema.
Verma said that Musharraf’s father had a house in Kotana which was later taken over by locals. “His uncle, Humayun who stayed in Kotana, later sold his land to locals and left the country. But this land was taken over by the Indian Government and declared an enemy property,” he said.
Enemy property is defined as that owned by Pakistani nationals in India. The ownership of such properties is passed to the Custodian of Enemy Property for India.
“For the last 10 years this was leased to locals for a period of three years each,” said Gram Pradhan, Mudin Khan.
Khan said that the villagers had been cultivating marigold, wheat and paddy in this land.
“But last year, they did not put it up for lease. We did not know the reason, until 15 days ago we saw some officials putting up posters announcing the sale of land,” he said.
Khan recalls that in 2001 he had seen many officials coming to the village one July day.
“It was summer. We heard that Pervez Musharraf had come here with his mother to see the village. We were not allowed to see them but there was a lot of talk about it,” he said.
Khan said that the people in the village did not know that the land belonged to Musharraf’s family before that; only a few old people in the village at times talked about it.
Stretched in an area of 886 bighas, Kotana has a population of 14,000.
The villagers claim that the settlement is at least 200 years old. From the folklores of Baradari Darwaza ( 12 doors built by a prophet Lakhi Banjara) to an old well that was used by the people during partition, when people in a large group left for Pakistan. Most of the people are employed in sugarcane cultivation or involved in manual labour.
“Lot of people left, their lands are still here. Some buildings have been destroyed with time and a few which had no takers were taken over by the government,” said Idris Khan.
Idris said he was 100 years old, the oldest in the village.
“There are not many people lef t to confirm if Musharraf stayed or ever came here,” said Iddu Khan, who works as a cloth vendor in Kotana. He said he is very happy that someone from the village made it big in Pakistan.