Mojtaba Hassan, Sawkat Shaikh

KOLKATA: They can treat us when we are ill, but can't be our neighbours. This "message" was allegedly conveyed to four Medical College and Hospital alumni, now doing their house-staffship at various hospitals in West Bengal, by their neighbours at a south Kolkata housing society.

Aftab Alam, Mojtaba Hassan, Nasir Shaikh and Sawkat Shaikh are now counting their days at their Kudghat flat and have approached a volunteers' group, Sanghati Abhijan, to resist their eviction. "Our members will file a general diary... we plan to talk to the neighbours and the local municipal councillor to find a solution," said Dwaipayan Banerjee, on behalf of Sanghati Abhijan.

The four MCH alumni rented the Kudghat flat two months ago. "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," Alam, a resident of neighbouring Howrah district , said on Wednesday .

"Many landlords rejected us because of our religion. We got this flat after several weeks of house-hunting," he added.

The four have not yet moved out of the flat but Sawkat said they had "more or less decided" to shift. "No one can stay peacefully in such an environment," he said .

TOI spoke to their landlord, who said, "A few of my neighbours spoke to me against my decision... Their sole objection was my tenants' religion." He added that it would set "a bad example" if he was forced to turn out his tenants. "But I can take only so much of pressure," he said.

