Demolish Humayun’s Tomb to make burial space for Muslims in Delhi: Shia Central Waqf Board

In view of fast shrinking space for burying the dead in the national capital, the Shia Central Waqf Board has now suggested the demolition of Humayun’s Tomb and its conversion into a graveyard for Muslims.
New Delhi: In view of fast shrinking space for burying the dead in the national capital, the Shia Central Waqf Board has now suggested the demolition of Humayun’s Tomb and its conversion into a graveyard for Muslims.
According to reports, the Shia Central Waqf Board president, Waseem Rizvi, has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this regard.
In his letter, Rizvi has stated that demolishing Humayun’s Tomb and converting it into a graveyard would solve the acute problem being faced by the Muslims for burying the dead in Delhi.
Rizvi wrote the letter to the PM after the All India Rabta-e-Masajid and Madaris-e-Islamia of Yamuna Vihar informed the UP Shia Central Waqf Board about the extreme shortage of space for graveyard in the national capital.
In their letter dated October 15, the two organisations said that the old burial grounds had got filled up and there is no space for building new ones either.
The two organisations also urged the UP Shia Waqf Board to provide land for burial ground in the neighbouring state close to the Delhi border.
In its reply, the UP Shia Waqf Board said that it examined the cities in UP close to the Delhi border but found that there was no land available with it for the purpose.
It admitted that the problem concerning the Muslims living in Delhi was alarming and needed to be addressed at the earliest.
The Shia Waqf Board then suggested to the PM that Humayun’s Tomb situated in the Nizamuddin area of the national capital be demolished in the public interest and converted into a burial ground.
Stating reasons behind its proposal, Rizvi said the Humayun’s Tomb is spread in an area of 35 acres.
“It is not a religious place. It will be considered as a graveyard because of the grave present there,” he wrote in the letter.
Rizvi also stated that the Mughals who came from from various countries, had plundered India’s wealth.
”According to historians, the Mughals demolished more than 3,000 temples by misusing their power and rule,” he said.
The Board went on to allege that the Mughal kings were neither propagators of Islam nor they were efficient rulers. “That is the reason why their grand graves cannot be the national heritage,” he said.
The Shia Waqf Board further said that there was no hindrance as per Islam in demolishing the Humayuns’s Tomb.
“The community to which Humayun belonged does not recognise any tomb,” Rizvi said while cited some cases of Sunni Muslims in Saudia Arabia.
Giving another reason for suggesting so, the Board said that the government does not earn anything from the Humayun’s Tomb, instead, it has to spend lakhs of rupees on its maintenance every year.