After Bajrang Dal Campaign, 500-Year-Old Mosque Demolished in UP’s Mahoba

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The place of worship for Muslims was destroyed and its debris was thrown into the nearby pond which has been a source of drinking water for centuries

Clarion India

NEW DELHI – A 500-year-old mosque was demolished in Uttar Pradesh’s Mahoba city after a campaign launched by members of Bajrang Dal, a militant youth wing of the Vishva Hindu Parishad, against the shrine on the Kanpur-Sagar Highway.

A report in a Hindi news website khabalahariya.org said Madina Masjid was brought down in the dead of night on 5 August when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was laying the foundation stone for a Ram temple at the land where the Babri Masjid once stood in Ayodhya.

The place of worship for Muslims was destroyed and its debris was thrown into the nearby pond which has been a source of drinking water for centuries.

Muslims living in those areas said that according to the National Highway rules, the encroachments on a 75-feet piece of land from both sides of the highway were removed. The mosque fell on some part of the highway in the ongoing expanding works of the road. PWD officials said that 8 feet of the mosque land fell on the highway’s area but wanted a 10-feet land. The mosque caretakers were, however, ready to give 11 feet of land in order to sort out the issue. Yet, some part of the mosque remained.

On 3 August, some administrative officials–Ramsuresh Verma, Rajesh Kumar Yadav, Jatashankar and Balkrishna Singh–along with the engineers working for the National Highway 86 went to the mosque to talk about the remaining part of the mosque.

The mosque caretaker Sayeed Lambardar had asked the administration for some time so that they could adjust their mosque according to the marks made by the engineers. However, the administration completely removed the mosque quietly at 2 am on 5 August.

When the SSP Virendra Kumar was asked about it, he refused to give any information regarding the disappearance of the mosque. However, he asked the reporter why she was asking about it when no other journalist was interested in covering the incident. When the reporter insisted on knowing about the demolished mosque, he said that he had no information about it and he would not talk about it.

“You must be mistaken, madam,” a young policeman told a Khabarlahariya.org reporter when she reached there early on 6 August. “Yahaan koi masjid nahi thi. Galat fehmi hai” (There was no mosque here. Must be a misunderstanding)

After the mosque was razed, police forces were deployed at the site. The shops adjacent to the razed mosque were closed and the area looked a desolate place, and there was no one around except the police.

A week before the Medina mosque disappeared, a temple half a kilometre away on the National Highway was also partially demolished for the same reason.

In villages and towns along this stretch of NH 86, the Bajrang Dal reportedly ran a social media campaign, largely over Facebook, to bring down the mosque, just as part of the temple was dismantled. They had given the ultimatum to the local administration to demolish the mosque before 5 August. They said that if the mosque was not razed to the ground, they would step up their agitation.

“If the Medina mosque is not gone by 5 August, all of Hindu society will start a big protest,” read a post from some Satyendra Pratap.

According to local people, the Medina mosque could be around 500 years old. ButHindutva organisations claim it is no older than 50 or 60 years. It was a larger, grander structure, before half of it was razed the first time the highway was constructed more than a decade ago.

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28 COMMENTS

  2. You are creating a communal fire. Government should ban such a media like yours. It sees you are trying to Islamisation of India….

  3. Clarion
    Freedom, speech, humanity

    The opening sentence reads as “MILITANT youth outfit”.
    This was enough to understand the motto, motive, thoughts, vision and aim of the article.
    Shame on the writer and clarion for the chosen words..
    Shame! Shame! Shame!

  4. From pictures it shows it was 500years old.??? I’ll make FIR against your paper on other state for hampering brother hood between indian peoples. Bloody Lier.

  6. Dear Clarion Team,

    First kindly understand the meaning of Militant ….calling bajrang dal a militant wing??? What militancy is done

    Further, do you agree that mosques or any other structure should be kept on live highway?? Is it not a safety hazard?? And when one temple can be removed to make way for road why can’t a mosque not be???
    Why you are trying to promote two different yard stick ….illegal structures should be treated with demolition whether mandir or mosque

  7. Moghuls raped/Looted built Masjids indescriminately
    With sword they converted Hindus, created HARAM’S for themselves
    Now democrticlly with Love Muslim are becoming Hindus
    Many Clarion like portals funded from Arabic Jihadi funds are inciting Muslims against govt

  10. If the PWD has demolished the structure, than why is this media house blaming, RSS and the VHP, isn’t clear, that this media house is pouring fuel to fire and instigating the local muslims to start a greater trouble, such media houses be completely shut down and the editor booked for instigating trouble between to relegious community.

  12. If the mosque was 500 years old it must be in ASI record. Do enlighten us. Otherwise stop your left liberal agenda reporting totally. Nobody is buying your moronic and devious logic.

  13. What a news …Fantastically by giving a wrong headline you means you Mr Editor wants to grab the attention by playing a Muslim card.Highway construction is a basic need for everyone…Don’t play your bogus card…Your report says that a temple has also been demolished for the same cause. Stop peddling hatred…again how dare you say Bajrang dal a militant group…But you don’t have guts to say the real militants as militants….and anti nationals as bastards…

  19. This is a blatant lie report. Want to create rift between communities. This is an very old post. Beware. Clarion should be charged to putting such article. Bastards.

  22. A good development. What is important here is that no faith/religion has been discriminated against. There is a place calledBhivandi in Maharashtra where the main road is blocked for long times for Namaz. Long route bused and other vehicles are forced to stop in the seething sun. This should be stopped

  24. Why not govt. Provide a new land as a replacement of that mosque to built. Just a poor and nasty politics mind setup by the leaders of our country and spoiling the name and fame of our countr

  25. Not surprising that the headline is made with a purpose. Instead of writing that it was for a highway, the headline has sought to twist facts. Why did you not report the temple demolition 7 days back as a primary news. Why did you wake up only after the mosque was demolished.

  26. As we can see clear in this photo that an illegal construction on road made by muslims in the name of mosque. It’s nothing but a land JIHAAD. Now the road is clear and your payment too for writing against VHP and Bajrang Dal. #bikauMedia

  28. Awesome job whosoever did it …

    And bitch, you claimed Bajrang dal in headlines and later in content engineers who demolished the mosque.

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