Three mosques and two Dargahs were demolished in Delhi on July 10 by Delhi Development Authority (DDA), and the locals are not happy with it. Local businessmen around Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah closed their shops to protest against the action.
Nizamuddin Tikona graveyard is situated near Khusro Park, Delhi. The graveyard is claimed to be more than 500 years old. Even as per Gazette records, the graveyard is shown to be more than 100 years old.
In the same graveyard, three mosques and two dargahs are situated. The whole graveyard is listed under the property of the Delhi Waqf board, over which the mosque and dargah have been built.
Around the graveyard, low-income people built their shelters. To remove these shelters, a PIL in Delhi High Court was filed back in 2015.
Taking action as per the court’s order on the PIL, Delhi Development Authority demolished the temporary shelters on May 16, 2017. But along with demolishing the temporary shelters, DDA’s bulldozers ran over some concrete homes in the vicinity.
The concrete structures which faced DDA’s action were Dargah Hazrat Shaikh and Masjid al Firdaus. To make matters worse, DDA marked other Dargahs and Mosques situated in the Tikona graveyard and told locals that they will be demolished in the coming days.
But this action of DDA backfired when management team of Dargah, some activists and lawyers took the DDA’s action to the court and Court stayed the further action for 15 days.
Moreover, the local shopkeepers and businessmen shut their shops to protest against DDA’s unlawful actions.
Khalid Miyan, Mutwalli of Mosque and Dargah told TwoCircles.net, “The decision to demolish those illegal shelter houses would be right because those were becoming a center of unlawful activities.”
He also said, “But DDA took advantage of his action. They said that the Khusro park belongs to DDA and inbuilt mosques and Dargahs are illegal. But the park is listed in 1972 Gazette as a property of Waqf board.”
Despite several tries at Delhi Development Authority, the officers were not available to comment on the issue. The Court has set the date of July 24 for next hearing on the matter.
Courtesy: Two Circles