CHANDIGARH: The demolition of the unauthorised floors of the mosque in the Sanjauli area of Shimla in Himachal Pradesh began on Monday.
After receiving the municipal commissioner’s orders on October 16, the Sanjauli Mosque committee sought permission to demolish the unauthorised floors from the Himachal Pradesh Waqf Board. After being permitted. the demolition process started and the cost to demolish the illegal structure is being borne by the committee itself, said sources.
Muhammad Latif, president of Sanjauli Mosque Committee said that the committee has got the no objection certificate from the Himachal Pradesh Waqf Board to demolish the unauthorised floors of the mosque as they had written to the waqf board for the same after they got the orders from Shimla Municipal Commissioner.
He said that they have told this to the district administration, Superintendent of Police and Municipal Corporation of Shimla. He added that it might take about a couple of months to demolish these floors as the committee is barring the cost of demolition and nobody has come forward to help them financially.
"On September 12, a delegation from the committee had submitted a representation offering to demolish the unauthorised floors voluntarily,’’ Latif said.
The Shimla Municipal Commissioner on October 5 ordered the demolition of the three unauthorised floors of the disputed mosque. The mosque was initially a single-story building but has reportedly been expanded to five stories without proper permissions as the Waqf Board claims ownership of the land.
The locals had contested the Waqf Board's ownership, arguing that the land belongs to the state revenue department and asserting that the mosque's expansion has caused various difficulties for them. The Muslim Welfare Committee had earlier offered to demolish the unauthorised floors themselves.
Last month the right-wing Hindu organisation led a massive protest in Shimla calling for the mosque's demolition, framing it as an illegal construction issue rather than a communal one.
Raising slogans of “Jai Shri Ram” and “Hindu Ekta Zindabad”, hundreds of protesters had gathered at the Sabzi Mandi at Dhall and marched towards the mosque breaking the police barricades and were lathi charged. Around ten people were injured in the clash with the police. Two days later, similar protests erupted in Mandi town of the hill state and water cannons had to be used to disperse protesters there also.