India’s Ujjain tense as mosque partially demolished for Hindu pilgrimage

Zeeshan Khan says helium has not slept decently for 3 nights successful a row.

It began connected Sunday erstwhile the 30-year-old joined hundreds of Muslims successful cardinal India’s Ujjain metropolis for a nighttime vigil extracurricular a salient mosque to forestall its partial demolition to widen the roadworthy for a Hindu pilgrimage festival held each 12 years.

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Ujjain is astir 200km (124 miles) from Bhopal, the superior of Madhya Pradesh state, which has been governed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since 2003, barring a little 15-month regularisation by the absorption Congress.

The Hindu nationalist BJP has been accused of a deliberate campaign to people Muslim spiritual structures – mosques, shrines, graveyards and madrasas (Islamic schools) – by claiming they were either illegally built oregon stood connected erstwhile Hindu temples.

Protesters motion towards constabulary officers during a objection adjacent the Shahi Masjid successful Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, India, September 28, 2026 [Reuters]

Hundreds of Muslim sites person been partially oregon afloat demolished by the authorities successful respective BJP-governed states successful caller years, galore of them successful the dormant of night. In galore cases, the demolitions took spot adjacent arsenic the substance was inactive pending successful courts.

The Muslim residents of Ujjain, who had akin fears of a nightly demolition, congregated extracurricular the Shahi Mosque successful Ujjain’s Chhatri Chowk country connected Sunday nighttime to protestation against the planned demolition.

The authorities aims to wide and widen the roadworthy for Simhastha Kumbh Mela, a Hindu pilgrimage to beryllium held connected the banks of the Kshipra River successful 2028.

“It started astir 2 months ago, erstwhile the Ujjain Municipal Corporation issued a announcement to the Shahi Masjid, saying that the mosque would person to beryllium acquired due to the fact that the roadworthy needed to beryllium widened,” Khan, who runs a integer selling business, told Al Jazeera connected Tuesday.

He said the municipal authorities gave a September 10 deadline to “remove the operation ourselves”, failing which, the authorities would instrumentality strict action.

Police officers onslaught a demonstrator adjacent Ujjain’s Shahi Masjid, September 28, 2026 [Reuters]

Meanwhile, a petition filed by the Muslims earlier the section High Court urging a halt to the demolition was dismissed, with the tribunal saying the 2028 Hindu pilgrimage needs further abstraction to negociate the traffic.

“Their statement was that a batch of radical would beryllium coming from extracurricular and that the nationalist should not look problems. So nationalist involvement had to travel first,” Khan, 30, told Al Jazeera.

‘With our ain hands’

As protests continued, the mosque absorption held respective rounds of discussions with the territory authorities, forcing them to hold to 3 feet of abstraction from the thoroughfare to beryllium removed alternatively of the much than 7 feet of operation primitively demanded by the officials.

On Sunday night, arsenic the medication brought bulldozers adjacent the mosque, thousands of radical congregated astatine Chhatri Chowk. Authorities said AI-generated societal media posts by immoderate Muslim men caused rumours that the mosque was acceptable to beryllium demolished, triggering the night-long demonstration.

“But the medication blocked the country and told the community: ‘Either you demolish the mosque yourselves, oregon we volition demolish it’,” said Khan.

Police officers onslaught protesters adjacent the Shahi Masjid successful Ujjain, September 28, 2026 [Reuters]

As hostility flared connected Monday morning, the constabulary fired teardrop state to disperse the protesters. According to media reports, the demonstrators threw stones astatine the police, who launched a baton onslaught connected the crowd, successful which astatine slightest a twelve radical were injured. Several men were besides arrested.

Meanwhile, arsenic fears of an outright bulldozer enactment connected the mosque grew, the mosque committee agreed to region a portion of the operation themselves. Dozens of Muslim men began taking down the level on the mosque, utilizing hammers and rods.

“We demolished it with our ain hands,” Khan said. “It hurts america deeply.”

On Tuesday, portion of the mosque’s minaret was removed by the authorities, helium added. “They started the demolition enactment connected the minaret, but nary specified enactment has started wrong the mosque yet.”

Authorities successful Ujjain person sealed the country astir the Shahi Mosque and deployed dense security.

As Ujjain remained tense, a Muslim radical held a protestation connected Tuesday successful the nationalist superior “against the continued enactment and demolition targeting mosques and places of worship”. Organised by the Monitoring Committee of Indian Muslims, the protesters included respective Muslim parliamentarians and spiritual leaders.

“Our contented is overmuch bigger than a azygous mosque oregon a azygous community. When a spot of worship is demolished, oregon enactment is taken against it without ensuring ineligible and law protections, it raises superior questions astir the regularisation of law,” Syed Sadatullah Hussaini, president of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, said successful a statement.

Several calls made by Al Jazeera to 2 BJP spokespersons successful Madhya Pradesh went unanswered.

Asif Mujtaba, laminitis of a New Delhi-based charity, told Al Jazeera that galore Muslims link demolition drives with the broader governmental situation successful the state since the BJP came to power.

“People nexus these demolitions with the connection utilized successful politics, with campaigns astir mosques, with unit connected madrasas and with repeated disputes astir Muslim institutions,” helium said.

“People spot their past disappearing from the city.”