Demolished Sunehri Bagh mazars’ caretaker to approach NDMC for land nearby

New Delhi, April 7 (PTI) The caretaker of two ‘mazars’, demolished during an anti-encroachment drive by the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), on Friday said he will approach the civic body with a demand for allocation of land nearby to set up the tomb-shrines.

The two mazars, located opposite the Sunehri Bagh mosque near Udyog Bhawan, were demolished in the early hours of Sunday as part of a series of drives being conducted by the NDMC against encroachments on footpaths.

Shahbaz Ahmad, 34, who had been taking care of the shrines since 2020, said that the Waqf Board has already been informed about the removal of the holy shrines and they are looking for a way to set up the structures again.

“We have decided to approach the NDMC about setting up the shrines on the same location or nearby. The two demolished mazars were more than 100 years old and were not illegal structures.

“They were of Peer Sunehri Baba and his nephew. They took away everything with the debris, including the holy items, Quran, chadars over the mazars, and the money kept inside the shrines,” he claimed.

Ahmed, whose family had been taking care of the holy structures for more than four generations, said they were not given any notice, verbal or otherwise, by the civic body before the demolition.

“The holy structure is in place for ages and no authority ever claimed that it was on unauthorised land. Officials of NDMC turned up all of a sudden in the early hours of Sunday morning with police and blocked the entire area.

“My uncle who lives near the mosque was not even allowed to go to the shrine when he questioned them. Around 5 am, when I went there as usual for my work, I was shocked to see that the place was empty There were no shrines and everything was removed,” he said.

“All belongings were taken away There was absolutely nothing left. Since the death of my elder brother in an accident in 2020, I have been taking care of the shrines. I will be going to the NDMC office and will ask for all the holy items and other valuables including my money which were kept inside the shrine,” he added.

When asked about the demolition, an NDMC official said it was carried out as part of an anti-encroachment drive to clear all the footpaths from unauthorised encroachment.

“After demolishing the structures, construction of the footpath was started and currently work is in progress,” he said.