Delhi Witnesses Selective Demolition Drive Madrasa TehfizulQur’ān faces the wrath of a bulldozer squad without notice

Abdul Bari Masoud presents a report of how Madrasa Tehfizul Qur’ān in Delhi faced the wrath of a bulldozer squad of Union Urban Development Ministry’s Land and Development Office (L&DO) with a sizable presence of policeat odd hours and without any prior notice on April 11 while the case is pending in the local court…

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Abdul Bari Masoud

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Abdul Bari Masoud presents a report of how Madrasa Tehfizul Qur’ān in Delhi faced the wrath of a bulldozer squad of Union Urban Development Ministry’s Land and Development Office (L&DO) with a sizable presence of policeat odd hours and without any prior notice on April 11 while the case is pending in the local court and hearing was scheduled for April 13.

In the nation’s capital Delhi, a bulldozer squad struck another Muslim site in the name of action against encroachment. The Union Urban Development Ministry’s Land and Development Office (L&DO) started its bulldozing operation at an Islamic seminary, Madarsa TehfizulQur’ān, in Delhi’s upscale Bengali Market area at around 6 a.m. on April 11, which is by no means an official working hour. It also partially destroyed a nearly 250-year-old mosque. The Madrasa authorities were not notified in advance of the operation, which was conducted at odd hours. The “illegality and highhandedness” of the L&DO authorities is evident even from this. Additionally, it is not the first time the government has demolished Muslim sites in Delhi.

Officials from the L&DO, with a sizable presence of police, stormed at the madrasa in the very early morning as we were about to finish our Fajr prayers, according to Muhammad Murtaza, a teacher at the madrasa.

The officers claimed to be in possession of a court order allowing them to destroy the madrasa.When he sought for it, the officials allegedly told Murtaza that the court order had already been delivered to the masjid committee. Murtaza narrated the entire series of events to Radiance and said, “We never received any demolition order.”

In his account, the cops allegedly shoved the madrasa staff and warned them “not to get involved” because the building was under deconstruction. Given that the matter was already in court, we did everything we could to convince the authorities to put off the demolition, but they did not heed our pleas, said Murtaza.

The wudu or ablution area, three water tanks, the madrasa’s only source of running water, a piped water line for drinking, cameras, power boards, and wires were among the many components of the madrasa that were destroyed.

Muhammad Ahmad Qasim, the imam of the masjid, remarked, “Look around… they didn’t even spare the kids’ stuff.” Everything is destroyed, including their books, beds, and cabinets.

The entire damage from the destruction, according to Qasim, will be `15 to 20 lakhs.

The students were seen scrambling through the rubble of the demolished rooms to pull out their belongings and the mangled blades of a ceiling fan.

The madrasa houses 120 orphan and underprivileged children from Bihar, West Bengal, and Uttar Pradesh.  In addition to the Qur’ān and Urdu, Mathematics, Hindi, and English are also taught to the students at the madrasa.  The madrasa has a six-member teaching staff.

“There aren’t many student rooms available. In the backroom, we’re tweaking them right now. There’s a lot of children there,” Qasim said.

In the meanwhile, Amanatullah Khan, chairman Delhi Waqf Board, and senior lawyer Mehmood Pracha also arrived at the scene, but destruction had already started. In the demolition drive, children’s rooms and their things were destroyed.

The madrasa committee told Radiance that the demolished rooms erected on the portion of land belonged to the Delhi Waqf Board while the L&DO’s officials contested that it was an intrusion on their property. The case is pending in the local court and hearing was scheduled for April 13 but before the hearing, the demolition drive was carried out.

Condemning the act of L&DO, the president of the seminary’s governing committee, Hafiz Matloob Karim said that they were not given advance notification.

“I was at home when I got a call in the morning about the deployment of a massive force and civic body officials approaching the mosque site to demolish a piece of it,” Karim told Radiance.

“L&DO began tearing down the complex’s outside wall in less than ten minutes. We were not given any prior warning. The walls and rooms, where the students stay, were still being demolished,” he further said.

Within ten minutes, they bulldozed the walls of the Madrasa’s main hall and rooms. The Waqf Board owns this property. Additionally, we confirmed with the board that no previous notice of the demolition had been given to them. These buildings are lawful, he added.

The 200-year-old mosque known as BachhonWali Masjid is said to be under the list of 123 waqf properties in Delhi.

An official of L&DO, who was on the scene, claimed that the temporary constructions that were damaged in the squall in May of last year were converted into permanent structures without permission.

“The L&DO department had leased the area for a coal depot forty years ago. However, the original allottee broke the terms of the agreement by building an ice cream shop. The parlour had a lock on it.  Subsequently, the mosque gradually expanded to include a few rooms that extended onto the surrounding area.” The officer stated that this extension has been in place for eight years.

He also claimed that no hostel was bulldozed. “The demolished area was used as a veranda,” the official added.

The entire property is 35,000 square yards. In response to the complaint the monitoring committee received, the action was taken. After the complex is demolished, we are also defining the complex’s perimeter and public land, the official added.

However, Karim refuted all the claims of L&DO officials and asserted that the said piece of land belongs to Delhi Waqf Board and all these constructions are legal.

“The court hearing regarding the matter is pending and a date was also fixed but in a hurry, the L&DO, Central Public Works Department (CPWD), and North Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) carried the demolition,” Idris Khan, treasure of the masjid committee stated.

Amanatullah Khan, a member of the Delhi Legislative Assembly and chairman of Delhi Waqf Board, arrived at the site after the bulldozer operation. He said the mosque’s complex was purposefully being destroyed and that due process was not followed.

Speaking to reporters, he added, “The mosque complex was being demolished without any court notice; the authorities should’ve followed due process of law if there was anything wrong with the structure.”

According to Suvasish Das, head of L&DO, the destruction was done to carry out a court order. “We merely adhered to the legal procedure. I’m at a loss for words at this point,” he remarked.

However, the Waqf Board disputes the L&DO’s assertion that it is an intrusion on their property.

An official from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs told a newspaper that only a portion of a wall adjoining the L&DO property was destroyed, leaving the mosque and madrasa standing intact. Pictures, however, depict a different narrative.

Advocate Mehmood Pracha is seen in several social media videos, asking officials to show him the demolition order. Later, he was seen being driven off in a police vehicle. According to the police, Pracha was not detained but was removed from the area and immediately released.

Speaking with Radiance, Pracha blamed the Waqf Board for this demolition.

“I constantly demanded a copy of the order authorising demolition from the on-duty police officer(SHO). But despite many pleas, the policeman insisted that he would disclose the order when the ‘right time’ came,” according to Pracha.

I further insisted that the policeman record his complaint that a dacoity had occurred there since all possessions had been taken and the buildings had been forcibly demolished. But it was in vain, said Pracha.

In the past few months, Delhi has witnessed numerous encroachment removal drive involving religious institutions. On April 1, PWD cleared the site of an old dargah near Hazrat Nizamuddin in South Delhi of encroachments and demolished ‘unapproved’ religious structures, including mosques and temples, from Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg near ITO.

The New Delhi Municipal Council carried out an encroachment drive on Mazars (sacred shrines) to make way for a footpath located opposite Sunehri Bagh Mosque near Udyog Bhawan. The drive was conducted amid heavy security deployment.

The custodian of Dargah Syed Bhuery Shah at Nizamuddin Yusuf Baig told Radiance the PWD officials came to the Mazar, saying:“We want to demolish the structures for the forthcoming G 20 summit and they also wanted to remove the graves but I flatly refused.”

It is to be noted that in February 2023, the Delhi High Court made the observation that institutions of worship could not trespass on public property or obstruct public development projects.

But the removal drive appeared to be selective as many as five Muslim sites faced the wrath of the bulldozer. A social activist drew attention to the fact that many temples have been built on encroached land, even on the pavement of major roadways, but these have escaped punishment