Hyderabad: Amid violence, Paigah land changed hands

Hyderabad: Paigah property, spread across about 848 acres in Hafeezpet in the IT corridor, has been changing hands in the last three decades. Survey No. 80 itself has 484 acres, the the other land parcels lie in Surveys No. 77, 78 and 79. The four survey numbers were registered as Paigah property in records before 1960. Following the IT boom and development in Serilingampally, the land began changing hands, and there has been violence.

In 1989, first murder was recorded on these lands at New Hafeezpet Mosque. A rival to the Khurshid Jah Paigah family eliminated one Saber Chows while he was in Friday prayers. In 2002, one Prabhakar Rayudu, who supported the family against encroachers, was murdered by a few youth including one Shahnawaz who later become a history sheeter.

Mr Mohammad Moizuddin Khan, a successor to the Khurshid Jah Paigah land, said the family had got favourable orders on the land. “The land is still in the possession of encroachers,” he said. The family has been fighting encroachers who occupied land by creating fabricated documents, forged documents, illegal registrations and mutations of thousands of acres.