Police clash with locals during demolition drive near mosque in historic Old Delhi

India’s capital was gripped by tension on Wednesday after municipal authorities began tearing down structures near a century-old mosque, alleging encroachment.

Residents protesting the demolition drive around Faiz-e-Elahi Masjid in Old Delhi’s Turkman Gate area allegedly threw stones at police personnel, injuring at least five. Police, in turn, fired tear gas to disperse the protesters.

While authorities claimed that several structures in the area were illegal, the mosque management said that they were built on Muslim charitable land governed by Muslim personal law.

Indian authorities are routinely accused of bulldozing Muslim homes, businesses and places of worship on flimsy legal grounds, especially in states ruled by prime minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist BJP party.

In February last year, Amnesty International condemned a pattern of what it dubbed “bulldozer justice” aimed at punishing activists from minority groups, mainly Muslims.

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The demolition drive on Wednesday was set to start at 8am, but bulldozers arrived in the dead of the night at around 1.30am, the Hindustan Times reported.

It was conducted in line with the Delhi High Court’s directions, police claimed. In a ruling on 12 November, the court gave the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and the Public Works Department three months to clear 38,940square feet of land that had allegedly been encroached upon.

The municipal corporation in turn issued an order on 22 December stating that any construction outside a 0.195-acre area was subject to demolition. The mosque was within the 0.195-acre area, it noted.

The order claimed that neither the mosque’s management nor the Delhi Waqf Board, which manages Muslim charitable endowments in the city, had produced documents proving ownership or lawful possession of land beyond this specified area.

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The order was challenged in the High Court by the mosque’s management, which questioned the basis of the municipal corporation’s conclusion the structures outside the specified area constituted encroachments and were liable for removal.

It argued that the land adjoining the mosque, including a graveyard, was a notified Waqf property, meaning a charitable asset governed under Muslim law and, so, the Waqf Tribunal had exclusive jurisdiction over all disputes related to it.

On Tuesday, the court issued a notice to the municipal corporation, the waqf board, and a number of government agencies asking them to file their responses within four weeks. The “matter requires consideration”, the court said, listing it for a hearing in April.

The very next day, however, authorities arrived with at least 17 bulldozers, sparking protests.

“About 25-30 people threw stones at police teams and five policemen sustained minor injuries. We had to use tear gas to control the situation. There was a banquet hall and a dispensary which were demolished. The drive was conducted at night, keeping in mind that people should not face any difficulty,” senior police officer Nidhin Valsan said. “We will take action against those who were involved in stone-pelting.”

The situation was “promptly brought under control through measured and minimal use of force, ensuring that normalcy was restored without escalation”, Madhur Verma, joint commissioner of police, said.