On January 30, the Delhi Development Authority demolished the Akhoondji Mosque and the Bahar Uloom Madrasa located inside Sanjay Van in Delhi’s Mehrauli, calling the structures “illegal encroachment”. 

While the mosque was reportedly over 600 years old and maintained by the Delhi Waqf Board, the adjoining madrasa, or Islamic educational institution, housed about 25 orphan children. Reportedly, the authorities at neither the mosque nor the madrasa were informed about the DDA demolition drive until minutes before the structures were razed to the ground.   

Newslaundry spoke to the imam of the mosque, and a teacher and students at the madrasa. “No prior notice was given to us. Children were left without a roof in freezing cold... some even without sweaters or slippers,” said Muzzamil Salmani, teacher at the madrasa. The students said they could not manage to take any of their belongings from the site. “Everything was reduced to a rumble,” said one of the students.

What impact will it have on the children and their future? How are they coping with the loss of both heritage and home?

Watch.

This report was published with AI assistance.

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