Ujjain’s historic Shahi Masjid to voluntarily remove portion for Simhastha road project

A portion of Ujjain's historic Shahi Masjid will be voluntarily removed from Tuesday to facilitate a road-widening project ahead of the 2028 Simhastha Kumbh Mela. The mosque committee said the Muslim community is cooperating with the administration after an agreement was reached.

Ujjain:  The voluntary removal of a portion of Ujjain’s historic Shahi Masjid will continue on Tuesday, a mosque committee member has said, stressing that the Muslim community respects the road-widening project, undertaken ahead of the 2028 Simhastha Kumbh Mela.

After discussions between the local administration, Shahar Qazi and committee officials, an agreement was reached to take up the work peacefully, Numainda Committee member Fahim Sikandar told reporters on Monday.

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Due to the decision on removal of a portion of the mosque not reaching everyone concerned on Sunday night, the situation remained tense for some time and even led to stone-pelting on Monday, he noted.

Sikandar insisted the Muslim community respects the road widening project and is cooperating in the removal of the affected portion of the Shahi Masjid.

The mosque committee’s effort was to keep the religious site as safe as possible, but after a lack of consensus, a decision was made to demolish the portion coming in the way of the road widening project, he contended.

According to Sikandar, the administration initially did not bring machines and equipment for demolition, and the community members themselves began removing the affected portion of the mosque’s wall.

A final decision on how much of the mosque structure will be removed for the project is still pending, he said, adding that discussions are going on regarding demolition of three to eight feet of the shrine’s wall.

As the decision on removal of a portion of the mosque did not reaching everyone concerned on Sunday night, the situation remained tense for some time, he said.

However, after discussions with senior members, who clarified that the work was being done voluntarily, the situation calmed down, Sikandar stated.

He said the work related to the removal of the mosque portion for the road project could take seven to eight days to complete and machines will be used if required.

The work will begin on Tuesday morning, and special attention will be paid to safety throughout the process, he insisted.

Tensions flared in the Madhya Pradesh city on Monday as police lobbed tear gas shells to disperse a crowd that hurled stones while protesting the proposed demolition of a portion of a mosque for a road-widening project, officials said.

Later in the day, the Madhya Pradesh High Court disposed of two writ appeals on the removal of the portion of the historic Shahi Masjid to facilitate road widening for the Simhastha Kumbh Mela after the Muslim side reached an agreement with the civic authorities.

The Indore bench of Justices Subodh Abhyankar and Jai Kumar Pillai disposed of the petitioners’ separate appeals after they stated that a settlement had been reached between them and the Ujjain Municipal Corporation regarding the removal of a portion of the mosque.

It also ruled that the Ujjain Municipal Corporation’s assurances and interim notice in the Shahi Masjid case would be binding on the civic body.

Kuldeep Pathak, the lawyer representing one of the Muslim parties, told PTI after the hearing that the HC had disposed of the Muslim side’s writ appeal based on an agreement between the Ujjain civic body and a committee responsible for the management of the Shahi Mosque, and directed both parties to abide by the agreement.

He claimed the Ujjain administration had sought to demolish approximately 9.5 feet of the Shahi Mosque for road widening, but under the agreement, a deal was reached to remove around 3 feet.