Row in UP after govt razes ‘mosque’, Waqf board to move HC

UP SUNNI CENTRAL WAQF BOARD SAID IT WAS A 100-YROLD MOSQUE AND IT WILL APPROACH THE ALLAHABAD HIGH COURT

LUCKNOW: Controversy broke out in Uttar Pradesh’s Barabanki town on Tuesday over the demolition of a decades-old structure, with Muslim groups saying it was the illegal razing of a mosque and the local administration claiming it was residential encroachment on government land.

The structure was razed in Ram Sanehi Ghat tehsil area of Barabanki on Monday amid police deployment.

The tehsil is located on a highway on the Barabanki-ayodhya border.

Barabanki district magistrate Adarsh Singh said the structure was constructed illegally on government land by unidentified people who escaped when a notice was sent on March 15.

The administration took possession of the structure on March 18 and it was demolished on Monday after due orders from the sub-divisional magistrate’s court, he added.

He said the occupants were provided sufficient time to prove their ownership after which the SDM court issued an order, saying that the structure was constructed illegally and subsequently it was removed on May 17, 2021, as per the legal proceedings.

But the UP Sunni Central Waqf Board said it was a 100year-old mosque and said it will approach the Allahabad high court demanding restoration of the mosque, a high level judicial inquiry and action against the officers concerned.

“It is high handedness of the local administration,” said the board chairman, Zufar Ahmad Faruqi.

A Barabanki resident and lawyer, Iqbal Naseem Nomani Dariyabadi, said he was offering namaz at the mosque for the past three decades.

Dariyabadi said he was unable to understand the motive behind the hurried action during the pandemic.

A district official said the “illegal structure” was first flagged during a verification drive on the Ram Sanehi Ghat tehsil premises in March. “Three persons living at the site escaped when asked to show their identity proofs,” he added.