Barakah Foundation premises locked down amid leadership dispute

The Barakah Foun­da­tion in Ch­agua­nas was placed un­der lock­down yes­ter­day amid an on­go­ing dis­pute over its lead­er­ship and con­trol of its premis­es.

The dis­pute be­gan af­ter the death of the foun­da­tion’s founder, In­shan Ish­mael, in Au­gust last year. His son, Za­akir Ish­mael, was lat­er re­moved as chair­man by the board, spark­ing dis­agree­ments over con­trol of the grounds.

In a pub­lic no­tice, the foun­da­tion said it had no­ti­fied po­lice and that the lock­down would re­main in place un­til fur­ther no­tice. It said the ac­tion was in­tend­ed to re­gain con­trol of the premis­es and re­move peo­ple it al­leged had been placed there with­out prop­er au­thor­i­ty.