On Saturday, June 3, an illegal dargah built inside the Sajuba Girls High School premises in the Jamnagar district of Gujarat was demolished by the local administrative authorities. The demolition drive was carried out amidst a heavy police presence at midnight. SDM Bhavesh Kher, SP Premsukh Delun, and Deputy SP Vaghela were also present at the demolition site in addition to 400 cops.
The now-demolished dargah named Syed Jinnat Bibi Ma Nagani was illegally constructed inside the premises of Sajuba Girls High School on Ranjt Road. There were regular complaints of schoolgirls being disturbed by the burning of incense and frankincense at the illegal dargah. The principal of the school also complained about this to the administration of Jamnagar while the Hindu organisation ‘Hindu Sena’ also voiced the demand for the removal of this illegal religious structure. Following the demolition, Hindu Sena chief Prateek Bhatt welcomed the action taken by the authorities.
The local authority of Jamnagar carried out the operation to demolish the construction amid long-standing objections on the intervening night of Friday (2 June) and Saturday (3 June). District Police Chief Premsukh Delu, SDM, Naib Mamlatdar, and other officers arrived, and Jamnagar LCB, SOG Branch, CT A Division, B Division, and C Division police station officers and other personnel were also deployed at the site.
On Saturday morning, District Superintendent of Police Premsukh Delu told the media that after receiving a memorandum about the encroachment in Jamnagar’s prominent government Sajuba Girls High School, the case was verified with the collector, and action was taken to remove the encroachment. A total of 400 police officers were deployed. Even now, many other such encroachments are on the administration’s radar.
Before this, on May 27, Junagadh’s local authorities carried out a demolition drive of illegal encroachments amidst protests by up to 2000 Muslims. Many illegal Mazars were also demolished in the action carried out against such illegal structures.