By Md. Ali, TwoCircles.net
New Delhi: The Railway administration of New Delhi bulldozed a Mosque on 19 August 2008. The demolished Mosque is located adjacent to Chander Vihar Mandawali station which is few kilometers from the New Delhi railway station.
The officials of the railway administration have claimed that the land on which the Mandawali Masjid is located belongs to the Railways,local Muslims dispute this claim.
In order to protest against this arbitrary step of the Railway officials the local residents thronged at the railway station and stopped rail services for several hours.
TwoCircles.net talked to the Deputy-Speaker of the Delhi Assembly Shoaib Iqbal who visited the site on 19 August itself when he got to know of this incident. He lives barely five kilometers away from the Mosque
He told TwoCircles.net that the mosque was demolished on the orders of the senior officers of the Railway administration.
According to him five-times’ prayers have been regularly observed in this Mosque for the last 30 years.
“But i don’t understand why only on last Tuesday they [Railway authorities] come to realize that the land belongs to the railways.Although they did the whole demolition without presenting any document as proof of their claim. The railway authorities took away all the property of the Mosque.”
He alleged that the railways administration has demolished the masjid arrogantly and appealed to the Union Minister of Railway Laloo Prasad Yadav to institute a high level inquiry of the incident.
He reffered to the explicit directive of the Delhi Lieutenant Governor not to demolish any construction during rainy season, even then, the masjid and the mausoleum has been demolished.
Earlier he talked to the Chairman of the Railway Board and took up the matter with him. He asked him to file a case against the officials responsible for the demolition of the masjid without any legal notice.
Under the leadership of Shoaib Iqbal a demonstration was organized today at 2 PM at the site of the demolished Mosque. He condemned the demolition of the mosque and demanded the filing of a case against the officers who were involved in the demolition.
According to Shoaib Iqbal around ten thousand people participated in the demonstration. They demanded earliest permission to rebuild the Mosque.
Shoaib Iqbal informed that he is planning to organize a big demonstration on 29 August, 2008 which will start from Jama Masjid and conclude at the Prime Ministers’ Office (PMO) where it will gherao the PMO.
Today, Muslims performed Juma prayers today at the place where once Mandawali masjid stood. Situation is normal in the area and police force is deployed at the site.