An uneasy calm prevailed at Jangpura in Nizamuddin on Thursday where the razing down of a mosque that had come up illegally on DDA land on Wednesday led to a pitched battle between the local residents and the police. The protesters, meanwhile, continued to demand re-construction of the mosque. A few of them damaged a DTC bus while blocking the traffic on Mathura Road for some time, forcing the police to close the road from Neela Gumbad towards Oberoi Hotel.
More than a couple of companies of the Rapid Action Force, the reserve battalions and the local police were deployed in the area through Wednesday night and the entire Thursday.
A local police official said that a case of rioting was registered against unknown persons on Wednesday night and no arrests have been made so far.
The situation had remained by and large incident-free in the first half of the day. However, in the afternoon, a group of the protesters moved towards the main road and damaged a DTC bus. They wanted to damage another DTC bus but the community elders intervened and pacified them. The traffic had to be blocked from Neela Gumbad and Ashram Chowk due to the protest causing problems to those wanting to reach the Nizamuddin Railway Station. Meanwhile, all the shops in the locality remained closed on Thursday in protest against the razing of the mosque.
On Wednesday, the DDA had carried out the demolition of the structure, which had come up illegally, after the Delhi high court had ordered its demolition. The claim that the mosque was an old structure was also rejected by a high-powered committee of the Government of India.