Uncertainty looms over occupants of 150-yr-old Sunehri Bagh Masjid

On a cold January afternoon, 52-year-old Shakil Ahmed was offering his prayers at the Sunehri Bagh mosque, amid copies of the Quran stacked on shelves. Ahmed’s is among the two families that live on the floor below the mosque — a 150-year-old structure whose fate now hangs in the balance.

- Ashna Butani

Peeking from behind the blue curtains in the basement of the building that houses the mosque, Mrs Ahmed, 38, who does not want to reveal her first name, quipped, “Why now? Our families have been here for at least 80 years… before the roads and the Metro were here. The Mughals didn’t touch the mosque, nor did the British… So why now?”

On December 24, the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) published a public notice in various newspapers seeking opinions on the demolition of the historical mosque — near Udyog Bhawan Metro station, at the intersection of Maulana Azad Road, Motilal Nehru Marg and Kamraj Road — by January 1, to ease alleged traffic congestion in the area.

Ahmed’s family’s history is inextricably tied to the history of the mosque, they said, adding that they settled in a one-room apartment around 80 years ago. Ahmed, a father to four children — one boy and three girls — said, “If it is demolished, we will have to look for a new house. We are all very stressed and my eldest daughter is about to appear for her pre-board exams.”

The mosque itself is a two-storey structure with a modest Bangla dome and four minarets. His family currently occupies a small room in the mosque’s basement. The two-storey structure comprises a staircase that leads to the prayer area. The park surrounds the ground floor and a few steps below that is the basement with small rooms that function as homes or shops.

Ahmed works as a peon in a government office and worries that he might not be able to pay rent while educating his four children. He said that his father, originally from Uttar Pradesh’s Bijnor, moved to Delhi for work and found a job as a barber.