The incident, which happened on May 13, was the result of a property dispute between the library’s caretaker and encroachers trying to claim the library’s land, say police. The street-front of the library building is lined with shops. The shop keepers have had a number of run-ins with the caretaker and were attempting to grab the land, police added.
“When I found out early in the morning about this, I immediately went with about 25 men to the library. But by the then the locks had been broken and the entire library vandalised,” said Mohammed Farooq, caretaker of the library.
“I got to know that the books were taken away in a Maruti van and dumped in the Ganga. I immediately went to the police and they cooperated with us. But the books have been lost forever, it seems, and that is a big shock to me,” he added.
Police have arrested two shopkeepers, based on an FIR filed Mr Farooq. So far, only eight books have been recovered so far by the banks of the Ganga. The rest of the books are yet to be traced, and police say they may never be found.
The Urdu library in Munger was set up in the 1940’s, a few years after the Bihar earthquake of 1934, which killed thousands of people. The library was built in the memory of those victims.
“The library had a rich collection of Urdu books. Some of them were rare manuscripts. I am appalled that the lust for property led some people to take away all the books and dump them in the river,” said veteran Urdu journalist Nisar Ahmed Assi.
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