Mandi Municipal Commissioner HS Rana had served a notice to demolish the illegally constructed portion of the mosque on Jail Road within 30 days in a fast-tracked exercise.
Mandi Mosque Row: On September 13, Mandi Municipal Commissioner HS Rana’s demolition order was quashed by Principal Secretary TCP Devesh Kumar. The next hearing in the case will be in the court of Principal Secretary TCP.
The order came on Tuesday after the Municipal Commissioner last month ordered that the illegal part of the mosque be demolished after massive protests by Hindu organizations took over the town.
He ordered the demolition of two illegal floors of the Mandi mosque, which had been sealed until the judgment was announced.
The mosque row, which originated in Shimla’s Sanjauli, spread to Mandi, where hundreds of people gathered last month demanding that the illegally constructed mosque on Jail Road be demolished.
The Public Works Department owned the land on which the alleged illegal portion of the mosque stood, and a complaint had also been filed against an unlawful structure on the mosque premises.
The protests instigated unrest in the region, for over 600 individuals held their rally in the middle of Mandi and started marching towards the mosque.
Police fired tear gas shells and water cannons to disperse the agitators when they attempted to breach the barricades that were placed on the route toward the mosque.
