Macca Masjid parking lot home to refugees
■ 200 families live in Muhajireen camp on masjid premises
■ AS YEARS PASSED the camp behind masjid become the permanent address for Babu Miya and his family
■ SEVERAL MUHAJIREEN camps were set up in Hyderabad as there was no major riot in the city at that time.
For over seven decades, a 23,000 sq. yd parcel of land adjacent to the Macca Masjid has been the home of people displaced during Operation Polo, better known as the Police Action.
The Muhajireen (refugee) camp came up on what was then the parking lot of the Masjid, where the nobility used to park their horsedrawn carriages and proceed to offer prayers.
Forty-eight-year-old Ghani Miya says that his family migrated to the city and settled down in Muhaji-reen camp in the aftermath of the Indian Army entering Hyderabad State as it was known then.
As the years passed, the temporary camp became the permanent address for Mr Ghani Miya’s family, an others like him.
The camp now has small tenements housing families of up to eight members who pay a monthly rent to the minorities welfare department.
“My father fled the violence in Aurangabad and took shelter in the camp here. He used to tell us that his family was among the affluent ones, but lost everything during the riots and fled to save their life,” Mr Ghani Miya recalls.
Congress leader Mohammed Ghouse says that around 200 families took shelter in the almost 23,000 sq. yd parking lot of the historic Masjid.
“They have continued to live here for generations and eke out their livelihood by doing menial jobs. Seventy years have passed but their lives have not changed. A handful of families have moved away to other localities and stay in rented premises,” said Mr Ghouse.
The men here go and work in neighbouring markets as rickshawpullers or salesmen, while the women make bangles from lac.
Historian M.A. Qayyum says that several ‘Muhajireen camps’ were set up in Hyderabad as there was no major riots in the city at that time. “People from Aurangabad, Parbhani, Osmanabad, Nanded, Gulbarga, Latur and other districts of what is now Maharashtra and Karnataka came in hordes to Hyderabad then. These areas were all part of the Nizam’s Dominions. They were accommodated in temporary camps where they continue to stay,” he explained.
Over a period of time, the other camps were wound up and people moved over to new colonies while many returned to their native places.
“It is the only place in the city that relates directly to the events of Police Action and every house here has a tragic tale to tell,” says Mr Ghouse.