Poster saying ‘Muslims not allowed’ appear at Sinhagad fort entrance, Forest dept removes it

UNIDENTIFIED PERSONS put up a poster at the entrance of Sinhagad Fort, which said the ‘fort belongs to Hindus and Muslims are not allowed’, police said. The state forest department has removed the poster. Police said while no complaint has been received, they have launched a probe to identify the suspects who put up the poster.

Officials said early Tuesday morning, a poster was seen pasted on an old metal board near the entrance to the fort next to the vehicle parking lot. “As soon as the poster was brought to our notice on Tuesday morning, we removed it. It seems that someone came with the printed poster and pasted it on the old board in the wee hours,” said an officer from the forest department. The poster, which was in Marathi and images of which were subsequently shared on social media platforms, read, “This fort belongs to Hindus. Muslims are not allowed to enter.” At the end of the text was the word ‘hukumavaroon’ which means ‘by order.’

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The forest department officer said, “The miscreant who put up the poster seems to have written ‘by order’ at the end to create an impression that it was a government order.”

Sinhagad Fort, a medieval hill fort associated with Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and the Battle of Sinhagad, is one of Maharashtra’s most visited historical landmarks. The fort and its surrounding forest area fall under the jurisdiction of the forest department.

An officer from Pune Rural police said, “No formal complaint has been received yet in the case. But we are looking at the footage from the CCTV cameras on the access routes to identify the suspects who put up the poster.”