UP Bahraich administration demolishes 10 illegal Mazars, Waqf-registered shrine spared

The district administration in Bahraich on Monday demolished 10 mazars (mausoleums) that were allegedly built on encroached land within the Maharaja Suheldev Autonomous State Medical College campus . Officials confirmed that one mazar, registered with the Waqf Board , was spared during the demolition.

City Magistrate Rajesh Prasad said the Rasool Shah Baswadi mazar, located adjacent to the medical college, is registered with the Waqf Board. According to Waqf records, Hanif had served as the caretaker (mutawalli) of the shrine, and after his death, his son Shafiq managed its upkeep.

Over time, the mazar management reportedly encroached upon around 2,000 square feet of land and constructed 10 additional small and large mazars, along with a boundary wall. Following a complaint in 2002, the then city magistrate declared these additional structures illegal, issued notices to the management, and initiated legal proceedings.

The shrine authorities lost the case in both the city magistrate’s court and the district magistrate’s court in 2004. An appeal to the Devipatan division commissioner in 2019 reaffirmed that, except for the Waqf-registered shrine, all other mazars were illegal and needed to be removed. Despite this, the illegal structures remained in place.

Prasad noted that the land previously housed an agricultural farm with no other construction. After the medical college became operational in 2019, the presence of the mazars inside the campus prompted objections from college authorities. Earlier this month, the college principal wrote to the district magistrate seeking removal of the encroachments.

Acting on District Magistrate Akshay Tripathi ’s directions, the shrine management was served a notice on January 10, asking them to remove the illegal structures by January 17. “As the illegal encroachments were not removed even after the deadline, the administration carried out the demolition using bulldozers on Monday,” Prasad said, reiterating that the Waqf-registered shrine was untouched.