Bagai family requests PM to save their palace

PESHAWAR:

The Bagai family has written a letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan requesting him to stop the dismantling of the historic Bagai palace in Dera Ismail Khan city of Khyber-Pakthunkhwa (K-P).

The family is now based in India. The Bagai Palace commonly known as Bagai Mahal was built in the late 1800s by the Seth Das Ram Bagai inside the old walled city in Dera. Bagais were the zamindar or landlords and top business family of the area whose wealth was the stuff of legends locally.

Bagai were on the top of the social fabric of Dera under the British Raj. They built a bund to save the city from annual flooding and also established a Vedic College in Dera using their own money to rival the Islamia College of Peshawar. Their luxurious residence was one of the last memorials of this super rich family but it was recently purchased by a private group and dismantled despite the concerns of local community.

The family fled to India after partition leaving all their land and wealth behind in the face of deadly anti-Hindu riots.

“I am writing this to draw your immediate attention on the demolition of a heritage site in Dera Ismail Khan – “Bagai Mahal” despite tremendous efforts taken by the Archaeology Department to preserve it. The public has created a lot of agitation to stop the demolition and are willing to protest if given a chance, to preserve their heritage,” says the letter a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune.

“Today the Bagai family has requested the K-P administration to stop the demolition, but the land mafias and land grabbers don't seem to budge and continue to ruin the Bagai Mahal. The site can be brought to use by creation of a museum encompassing a library and preserving a few artifacts will prove to be a tourist attraction, symbol of culture.

The Bagai family has also agreed to contribute to the restoration by all means and resources possible.

The clock is ticking and culprits have proved to be of no moral. Therefore with all respect and a sad heart filled with hopes we humbly request you, please help us in saving this heritage site which if vandalised can never be restored,” says the letter written by Attul Bagai and other family members.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 26^th, 2021.