A mosque was demolished inside the Saharanpur Collectorate premises of Uttar Pradesh on the orders of the District Court early on Saturday.
The SDM, City Magistrate and other administrative officers were present at the site.
A large number of police personnel were deployed in the collectorate complex since Friday evening, and all gates to the complex have been closed.
The administration has also placed several Muslim leaders in West UP, including Kairana lawmaker and Samajwadi Party MP Iqra Hasan, under house arrest.
A police force was also deployed outside the leaders’ houses.
Iqra Hasan alleged that the administration has stopped er from going outside her residence since Friday night.
“To prevent me from going to Saharanpur last night, a large police force was deployed at my Kairana residence, and I was placed under house arrest,” Hasan said.
Hasan said that the voices of the public representatives in the region were being suppressed in the matter.
Saharanpur district comes under the Kairana Constituency,
The Samajwadi Party alleged that the Yogi Adityanath government prevented Hasan from travelling to Saharanpur to raise the issue.
On September 4, the Saharanpur District Judge’s court dismissed the Muslim side’s appeal challenging the City Magistrate's order passed on July 17 ordering the mosque’s demolition.
The District Judge's court upheld the city magistrate’s order declaring the mosque illegal.
Congress MP Imran Masood spoke to ANI, saying, "Our people stayed awake all night long. We kept making continuous efforts to contact the officials. Despite providing all the information, the mosque was not merely demolished; The Constitution was torn to shreds there.”
He said the mosque being demolished dated back to 1911.
“To this day, the mosque's ownership remains registered in the names of Wahid Khan and Yaqub Khan. In the High Court, everything was ignored; neither was the Waqf Board made a party to the case, nor was it included in the proceedings.”
“We will fight this battle within the legal framework. Let no one think that by demolishing the mosque, they have accomplished some great feat,” he said.
Authorities have made extensive security arrangements around the collectorate .
Additional forces were brought in from other district and RAF personnel were also deployed.
Surveillance in the surrounding areas to the collectorate complex during the operation was also restricted.
The demoloition order came after Vikas Tyagi, a former provincial coordinator of the Bajrang Dal, filed a complaint against the mosque alleging that it was contructed illegally and that it was being used for commercial purposes.
