Mazars on Delhi’s Sunehri Bagh Road removed to make way for footpath
The Hindu
Two mazars (sacred tomb-shrines) opposite the famous Sunehri Bagh mosque near Udyog Bhawan were removed as part of an anti-encroachment drive, authorities said on Tuesday. The drive was conducted amid heavy security deployment.
Two mazars (sacred tomb-shrines) opposite the famous Sunehri Bagh mosque near Udyog Bhawan were removed as part of an anti-encroachment drive, authorities said on Tuesday. The drive was conducted amid heavy security deployment.
Amid heavy security deployment, the demolition drive was conducted in the early hours of Sunday to remove the Dargah Sharif Sunehri Baba, officials said. “The more than 120-year-old mazars are of Peer Sunehri Baba and his nephew,” said Shahbaz Ahmad, 34, whose family has been taking care of the holy structures for more than four generations.
A New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) official said the civic body has been carrying out drives to “liberate all footpaths and pedestal surfaces from unauthorised encroachment” and the mazars were removed as part of it. Construction of the footpath was then started on Sunday morning and tiles were being laid near the site on Tuesday.
A senior Delhi Police officer said that NDMC had sought security for the drive. “We provided adequate force to prevent any law and order situation,” the officer said.
Mr. Shahbaz, the current caretaker of the mazars, said the authorities did not give any notice or inform anyone about the demolition. “They came around 2.30 a.m. on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday with heavy force. The entire area was blocked and we were not even allowed to go to the dargah.”
He added that the authorities took with them all the holy items that were there at the dargah. “They took away everything with the debris, including the chadars (sheets) over the mazars and the Quran and some money,” he said.
His uncle Shakeel Ahmad, 55, claimed that the main structures of the dargah were not in the way of the footpath. “Only one-one-and-a-half feet of the area where people place candle sticks after prayers needed to be removed. Had they asked us, we would have cleared that,” he said.
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