At a time when an artist in Uttar Pradesh made headlines for making a sand sculptor depicting Hindu-Muslim unity in Allahabad's famous Sangam Ghat, these residents of the Kudghat area of Kolkata are hell bent on getting four doctors evicted from their house as they are 'Muslims'.
The four Muslim doctors, who have been identified as Aftab Alam, Mojtaba Hassan, Nasir Shaikh and Sawkat Shaikh, are currently doing their house-staffship from various hospitals in the city. The doctors, who have been living in the flat for the past two months, said that their landlord has no objection to their religion but the people living in the colony are not keen with the idea of having Muslim neighbours.
"Our landlord did not have any problem with us but, right from the beginning, some of our neighbours created a hostile situation. Things worsened on Monday when a friend came to visit us. He was heckled by some neighbours who asked him to show an 'identity proof'. One of them - a middle-aged man - has asked us to find accommodation elsewhere as we are Muslims," The Times of India quoted Alam as saying.
The landlord of the doctors is also not happy with evicting the youth because of their religion and said that doing so would set "a bad example".
"A few of my neighbours spoke to me against my decision. Their sole objection was my tenants' religion," the landlord told TOI.
"But I can take only so much of pressure," he added.
Meanwhile, the youth have approached a volunteers' group called Sanghati Abhijan, to stand against their eviction and the organisation have also assured them of help. But, the doctors do not want to live in that colony.
"No one can stay peacefully in such an environment," Sawkat said.
However, this is not the first time that the youth have been treated in this manner. Many landlords rejected us because of our religion. We got this flat after several weeks of house-hunting," Alam explained.
