New Delhi: A demolition drive by Municipal Corporation of Delhi around Faiz-e-Elahi Masjid near Turkman Gate in Old Delhi early Wednesday was met with protests and stone pelting amid heavy deployment of Rapid Action Force and Delhi Police battalions. Four to five police personnel sustained minor injuries, the police said.
Believed to be more than a 100 years old, the Faiz-e-Elahi Masjid was one of the locations that Delhi suicide bomber Dr Umar Un Nabi had visited on the afternoon of 10 November. Hours later, the i20 he drove had exploded near the Red Fort, killing at least 15 people.
Madhur Verma, Joint Commissioner of Police (Central Range), said in a statement Wednesday that the administration, including district police, had held several coordination meetings with members of the Aman Committee and other local stakeholders to maintain peace and prevent any untoward incidents.
Following the incident of the stone pelting, Delhi Police have lodged an FIR against unknown suspects, and are scanning through CCTV footage from the vicinity of the mosque complex.
Nidhin Valsan, Central District Deputy Commissioner of Police said that around 100 people had gathered around the mosque. “There was an incident of stone pelting in which four-five police personnel have received minor injuries,” he said.
The crowd at the site was dispersed by use of tear gas by the forces on ground.
Valsan said the FIR was filed under Sections 221 (obstructing a public servant in the discharge of their public functions), 132 (using criminal force against a public servant to deter them from their duty), 121(causing hurt or grievous hurt to a public servant to deter them from their duty) 191(2 and 3) (rioting), 223 (A) (disobedience to orders from public servants), 3(5) (common intention) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, and provisions of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984.
He further said that five people have been detained so far based on intelligence for questioning, and to cross check with CCTV footage.
The demolition action—against encroachment of more than 30,000 square metres—took place hours after the Delhi High Court issued a notice to the MCD, Delhi Development Authority (DDA), Ministry of Urban Development’s Land and Development Office (L&DO), Public Works Department (PWD) and Delhi Waqf Board on a petition filed by the managing committee of the Masjid Syed Faiz Elahi. The mosque committee had challenged MCD’s demolition order, issued in compliance with Delhi High Court order from November 2025.
Advocate Irshad Hanif, who represented the mosque committee before the high court, said that the court had admitted the petition and orally observed that it required consideration, and that any action would be the outcome of the petition.
“What was the hurry in carrying out the demolition in the dead of the night, when even the high court order had not been uploaded yet? Was there a national security emergency, such as an India-Pakistan war, that required immediate action in wee hours? This is nothing, but a symbol of the ‘might is right’ phenomenon,” Hanif told ThePrint.
According to its order from 22 December, the MCD had recorded findings that the mosque’s available land records indicated it had only 0.195 acres allotted by the L&DO under a lease dated February 1940.
“No documentary evidence has been placed on record to establish ownership or lawful possession of the land in question in favour of either the Managing Committee, Masjid Syed Faiz Illahi or the Delhi Waqf Board,” the MCD order passed by a Deputy Commissioner-rank officer had read. “Further, by no stretch of imagination, masjid or dargah or graveyard can be used as marriage venue or clinic. This is a blatant misuse of public land. In view of above, any structure beyond 0.195 acre of land is an encroachment and deserves to be removed.”
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
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