Uttarakhand: Illegal Mosque razed by Dhami Government in Haridwar

The district task force in the Haridwar district of Uttarakhand demolished illegal Mosques built over government land on May 1. There has been massive government action against illegal Mosques in the state. In the month of March itself, the government demolished as many as 26 illegal Mosques and tombs.

Recent action was taken against illegal Mosques built on the government land around the Kumaon division. The government’s task force razed off around a dozen for illicit mosques and tombs nearby. These actions were taken so as to free up the encroached forest lands. Notably, the action team has been led by IFS and Nodal Officer Dr Parag Madhukar Dhakate.

While speaking with Panchjanya, Dhakate said, “The action has been taken following the decision of the chief minister. Notably, more than a dozen of Mosques have been demolished in the past week and no human remains have been recovered from there”.

After videos of illegal Mosques and tombs started circulating on the internet, the Haridwar district administration assured action against the encroachers. The task force removed an illegal mosque built near Ganga. Another one built under the irrigation department was also razed to the ground.

Notably, it was reported that the Uttarakhand government demolished more than 26 illegal Mazars built over the reserve forest land in the month of March. It was also reported that a crematory was also found inside the world-famous Jim Corbett National Park.

The parts of this tiger reserve forest have restricted entry. The place where this crematory is located falls under the restricted area, so-called no man’s land.

It is pertinent to mention that, the government authorities demolished 26 Mazars that were illegally constructed on the government’s forest land. The authorities conducted a survey and identified around 1400 religious structures built illegally on government land.

Reports claim, people of the Barelvi Muslim community are actively involved in encroaching government land and have been intentionally building Mazars in forest areas, eventually erecting permanent structures and claiming a larger portion of the forest lands.

The Chief Minister of the state, Pushkar Singh Dhami vowed to free the state with ‘Land Jihad’. In a Tweet shared on April 7 from his official Twitter account he said, “It has been observed that 1000s of unauthorised mazars, or mausoleums, have been built on forest land in Uttarakhand,” Dhami said, adding that “anti-social elements emerge” from these mazars and that his government will take “strict action” against such structures.

He said that his government is law-abiding and that no work will be done against law and religion in Devbhoomi Uttarakhand. He further said that the state government is not against any religion or any community in particular, however, they would not spare anyone indulging in ‘land jihad’ or ‘mazar jihad.’