In a video that surfaced online the mosque’s imam, Imam Zakir Hussain mourned the loss of the mosque and stated that it not only housed a madrasa where students came to learn called the Madrasa Bahrul Uloom but also held the sacred graves of revered figures. The demolition allegedly took place just before the call to the morning prayers and caught the local residents and early day worshippers by surprise and shock.

In #Delhi‘s #Mehrauli,A 600-year-old mosque was demolished by the Delhi Development Authority (#DDA) at 6 am on Tuesday, said Imam Zakir Hussain. Debris were completely removed so that people don’t get to know about the demolition.

The mosque named Masjid Akhonji had a Madrasa… pic.twitter.com/CR2oUJmYB7

— Hate Detector (@HateDetectors) January 30, 2024

The Imam has further accused the DDA officials of being careful to remove the demolition debris so as to hide signs of the demolition from the public. Furthermore, he has claimed that the authorities even forcefully took the phones from him and other people present at the incident due to which none of them could document the demolition. The Imam also further stated that the authorities did not even let him and others salvage the copies of the holy Qur’an before the demolition. Furthermore, the Imam has also stated that not only were the sacred artefacts and books within the mosque desecrated, but officials also destroyed the belongings and properties, such as food and clothing items, of the 22 students studying at the Madrasa.  The demolition, reportedly, took place with a considerable amount of police presence.

This shocking development comes only months after the DDA had expressly told a division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Narula at the Delhi High Court that no mosque, graveyard, or legally owned Waqf property would be demolished by the authorities in the Mehrauli Archaeological Park in response to a petition by the Delhi Waqf Board.

Citizens online have decried the “unconstitutional” nature of the demolition. The demolition comes in the line of various incidents where various state governments have selectively carried out demolitions of properties owned by Muslims. Recently as per a video posted by Hate Detector on the social media site, X, released in which the Assam Chief Minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma, can be seen boasting about having conducted 50,000 demolitions of homes in the state and expressed that Assam does not get as much “publicity.”

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Image: India Today

In Delhi’s Bengali Market area is a mosque standing tall for almost 250 years which now has a bunch of debris lying next to as a part of it has been razed to the ground by Delhi administration with the assistance of Delhi Police. This part of the mosque was a Madrassa where about 125 orphan children were residing is now demolished.

On Tuesday, Land And Development Office (L&DO), the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) and New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) conducted this “anti-encroachment” drive and demolished the boundary wall of the Bengali market mosque as that wall was abutting L&DO property. A Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs official told The Indian Express that the mosque and the madrasa have been left untouched and only a part of a wall abutting L&DO property was demolished. However, pictures tell a different story.

Image: India Today

All this, without giving any kind of notice to the management of the mosque. Advocate Mehmood Pracha was also present at the demolition site and demanded repeatedly from the police officer present, a copy of the order showing that the demolition has been authorised. However, despite repeated asks, the police officer kept avoiding showing the order, saying he will show it at the “right time”, as can be seen in a report by Millat Times. Pracha also demanded that the police officer take down his complaint that a dacoity had taken place there since all belongings were taken away and the structures illegally razed. However, to no avail. Pracha was then escorted  away by Delhi Police.

Illegal demolition of a 250 yrs old Mosque in Delhi. Adv @MehmoodPracha asked for legal orders but Administration hadn’t. ViA @Millat_Timespic.twitter.com/VWIYwJr1WU

— ?rundhati…?️? (@Polytikles) April 12, 2023

Trustees of the mosque said they are a privately-funded establishment and that the mosque runs on donation money. They told India Today that the land on which the structure was built belongs to the Waqf board.

Amidst all this, the Madrassa staff offered water and juice to the Police and Rapid Action Force (RAF) personnel who were present for security there.

Look at the beauty of my religion. The Bengali Market Madarsa staff offering water, juice to police & RAF posted for security at the demolition site. Those serving are themselves fasting & grieving the demolition. Even in such a time they are being kind. @azadsubhani pic.twitter.com/pETjZsyDvd

— Dr. Aqsa Shaikh (@doctorsaheba) April 12, 2023

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Delhi Police have arrested a 48-year-old cleric for allegedly raping a minor girl inside a mosque in Northeast Delhi. He was arrested on Monday morning from Loni in Ghaziabad where he lived, stated news reports. He was then produced in a city court and sent to 14-day judicial custody.

The 12-year-old girl told her parents that she was sexually attacked when she went to fetch water at the mosque on Sunday evening. Her parents filed a police complaint the same night, and a case was subsequently registered and the girl was counselled and taken for a medical examination, police told media-persons. According to news reports the girl’s parents, in their police complaint, have alleged that their “daughter had gone to the mosque to fetch water when she was allegedly raped by the cleric”. Police have booked the accused under section 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. 

However, the heinous crime has given trolls a way to earn their day’s wages. Thousands have commented on the rape, amplifying that it allegedly took place in a mosque, and that the accused is a Muslim cleric. Ignoring the fact that the accused has been arrested by Delhi Police hours after the complaint was filed, and has already been sent to judicial custody, trolls are hard at work making a communal issue and targeting those who speak up. Actor Swara Bhaskar, has been targeted once again. 

Ghaziabad minor raped in a mosque.
Kathua minor gangraped in a temple.
Both are heinous crimes. All perpetrators belonging to each religion are monsters who deserve harshest punishment.
In only one case sitting MLAs of ruling party take out marches IN SUPPORT of rapists.. 1/n

— Swara Bhasker (@ReallySwara) June 2, 2021

According to the right wing trolls, citizens who had raised their voices after the Kathua rape case was reported are not doing so in this case where the accused is a Muslim, and the scene of the alleged crime is a mosque. The right wing is also offended that the media is not amplifying that the rape reported on June 1 was allegedly commited inside a Mosque. They are comparing it to the kidnap, rape an murder of the child in a Temple at Kathua in 2018. 

In the horrific Kathua rape case, it was the likes of Choudhary Lal Singh who took part in the Hindu Ekta Manch march supporting the perpetrators in the Kathua rape and murder case. He and others were a part of the Hindu Ekta Manch campaign to free the accused arrested for the gang-rape of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua. On June 10, 2019, a special Pathankot Court had pronounced its verdict, holding six people guilty that included Sanji Ram, the caretaker of the temple where the crime took place and his friend Parvesh Kumar. Four police personnel: Special Police Officer Deepak Khajuria, Sub inspector Anand Dutta, Head Constable Tilak Raj and Special Officer Surender Verma were also found guilty in the case. The main accused in the case Sanji Ram, his friend Parvesh Kumar and a special police officer Deepak Khajuria were sentenced to life imprisonment for offences under Sections 302 (murder) of the Ranbir Penal Code. The three police men – Special Police Officer Surender Verma, Sub Inspector Anand Dutta and Head Constable Tilak Raj – who had allegedly taken Rs 4 lakh as bribe from Sanji Ram for sabotaging the case were sentenced to five years imprisonment for destruction of evidence and fined Rupees 25,000/- (rupees twenty five thousand only)

However, for the right wing trolls the two cases are the same, and the only issue is the religious identity of the accused, and not justice for the rape survivor and victim

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DMC released the report of its 5-member fact-finding committee, headed by human rights activist Ovais Sultan Khan, titled ‘The Legal Status of Religious Spaces in and around West Delhi’ on Thursday. The committee said the allegations targeted a particular community and tried to “disturb the communal harmony.” The committee also urged the DMC to lodge a complaint against the BJP MP with the Ethics Committee of the Lok Sabha as it is “clearly found that he has violated his oath of office.”

Last month, BJP MP Parvesh Verma had submitted a list of 54 mosques and graveyards, which allegedly existed in an unauthorised manner on government land across his constituency of West Delhi to Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal. He had raised the issue earlier also and on June 24, the DMC set up a five-member fact-finding committee. 

The report was released at a press conference organised on Thursday. The committee head Ovais Sultan Khan said, “the BJP MP was selective in his outburst.” He also said they did not find any of the 54 mosques or graveyards on government land. He further added that they found a temple which was on a government land and the BJP MP’s posters were on it. Also, there were a lot of temples on government land and asked “why the selective outrage?”

DMC chairman Zafarul Islam Khan, said, “We understand it [the statement] was on communal lines. Election is coming and they want to talk about these things so that there is polarisation and increase in their vote bank.” 

The committee visited all the sites listed by the BJP MP and found that the list was made in such a hurry, to further the party’s communal agenda, that there was one name which was repeated and in eight locations, they could not locate any mosque.

The committee has given eight recommendations in its report and has asked to lodge an FIR against BJP MP Parvesh Verma for “spreading rumours against a particular community and trying to disturb peace and harmony in Delhi.”

“In view of the upcoming Assembly elections in Delhi, there should be zero tolerance against those spreading hate and incitement to violence against particular communities,” another recommendation of the committee read.

The entire report can be read here.

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