The Municipal Corporation of Delhi has carried out a bulldozer operation at the Madina mosque in Shalimar Bagh, Delhi, late at night.
An Indian news outlet confirmed the matter, reporting that the operation was carried out on the night of September 23.
According to the report, the upper part of the mosque and several adjacent houses near the road leading to Max Hospital were demolished under heavy police security. The authorities say the drive was carried out to remove “encroachments” as part of a road-widening project.
The mosque committee, however, alleges that a religious structure was bulldozed under cover of darkness without adequate notice while legal proceedings were still under way.
Mosque committee president Mobin Khan said that after receiving the municipal notice, the committee sought clear copies of the relevant documents on the advice of its lawyer. In the meantime, the corporation issued first, second and third notices, the last giving 15 days to demolish the structure. The committee then went to the appellate tribunal.
At the hearing, Mobin claims, the corporation said that one floor of the mosque, which has an electricity meter, was recognised, while the rest was being treated as new construction. In response, the committee submitted a 2001 plan for a three-storey building and also applied for the age of the wall plaster to be tested. But he alleges these documents and submissions were not given due weight.
The mosque’s imam, Zarifur Rahman, asked why, if many houses in Shalimar Bagh were built on the basis of general power of attorney, only the mosque among buildings held under the same arrangement was being called illegal construction.
AIMIM Delhi president Shoaib Jamai reached the scene late at night after hearing of the operation. He said police had cordoned off the whole area, and because there were copies of the Quran and other items inside the mosque, he and his associates removed them.
Shoaib Jamai alleged that the midnight operation raised serious questions about constitutional rights. Comparing it to the demolition of a mosque in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, he urged that such a situation not be created in Delhi.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report