Aftermath of Demolition: Tensions Rise in Gir Somnath Over Muslim Shrines
Gir Somnath (Gujarat): Javed Hussain Banva, a 12th-generation caretaker at Gir Somnath’s Pir Silar Shah Dargah, recently lost his eyesight. Banva has lost partial vision without any genetic or medical predispositions that could have led to the condition.
“After I witnessed the bulldozing of the shrine of our saint, our Sufi, nothing made sense to me. The doctors told me I lost my vision because of my anxiety and stress,” said Banva, recalling the bulldozing of the Pir Silar Shah Dargah and eight other structures of Islamic significance in September 2024.
Banva’s home, life and memories of childhood lie under the rubble that neighbours the rubble of the Pir Silar Shah Dargah. Seven months ago, at four in the morning, when Muslims begin waking up for dawn prayers, Muslims in Gir Somnath district were jolted out of their sleep by hundreds of policemen who made way for bulldozers.
The day when the police orchestrated the demolition is deeply etched in the minds of Gir Somnath’s Muslims. That day, over 200 Muslims saw the state crush their lives and livelihoods using hydraulic cranes, at least 60 excavators, 50 tractor trailers, five dumpers and about 1,400 policemen.
On September 28, 2024, the Dargah, along with eight other religious structures associated with Muslims and 47 mostly Muslim-owned houses in the Veraval area of Gir Somnath district in Gujarat, were demolished by authorities in a six-hour drive. As many as 200 locals were affected, said Banva. While the demolitions took place, police detained around 150 locals, it is alleged.
Legal battle for faith
For the last eight months, Ismailbhai Chhel, a resident of Veraval, has been waging a war against what he calls the arbitrary razing of Muslims’ sentiments – the demolition of the nine shrines.
In Prabhas Patan, after several historic shrines such as the Haji Mangrol Dargah, Shah Silar Dargah, Garib Shah Dargah, Mayapuri Dargah and Jafar Muzaffar Dargah were bulldozed, Chhel, as the president of the Auliya-E-Deen Committee – a committee founded for the shrines’ maintenance in Gir Somnath – vowed to avenge the desecration of the shrines legally.
The matter was heard at the Supreme Court as a special leave petition (SLP) filed by the Auliya-E-Deen Committee against a Gujarat high court order of October 3, 2024, that refused to order status quo on the demolition.
Pir Shah Silar Dargah before demolition. Photo: Special arrangement
Appearing for the Committee, senior advocate Kapil Sibal had questioned the demolition, arguing that the shrine being labelled ‘illegal’ dated back to 1903 and was previously registered in the Committee’s name. Sibal also argued that the demolitions were carried out without respect for the legal, religious and historical status of the land. He said that the land was registered under the Waqf Act and questioned how the government could proceed with demolition without resolving ownership.
The case was last heard on January 17, 2025 and was adjourned for the respondents to file their documents. The respondents are the State of Gujarat, the District Collector (Gir Somnath), the Deputy Collector (Gir Somnath), City Survey Superintendent, Prabhas Patan, Mamlatdar (Veraval City), Gujarat State Waqf Board and the Somnath Trust. The case will be next heard on July 15.
‘Better to be under the rubble’
Khatuna Abdul Qadir always knew she had a special spiritual connection with the Pir Haji Mangroli Shah Dargah. After she lost her husband a decade ago, Khatuna, 60, frequented the shrine in search of peace and patience. This year, when she could not attend the Urs at the shrine, her whole life flashed in front of her eyes – especially September 28, 2024 when the shrine was desecrated by State authorities.
Followers of the shrine had even appealed to the Supreme Court seeking permission to conduct the Urs at the Pir Haji Mangroli Shah Dargah, among the alleged encroachments removed from government land in Gujarat’s Gir Somnath district. But on January 31, the court turned down the plea, disappointing Gir Somnath’s Muslims who have been fighting for their faith.
Khatuna could not see the Urs take place, for the first time in her life. “They attacked our shrines, mosques and homes. I ask them, why didn’t they crush us too? It would be better to have been under the rubble of our homes and shrines,” she lamented.
Several Muslim families ousted from the shrines which were demolished now live in makeshift tents. Photo: Tarushi Aswani
Khatuna is not alone in her anger with the life she lives. Her former neighbour, Safina Bano, is with her – as are 200 other locals who say their lives have lost meaning. Bano remembers her world falling apart when she was made to evacuate her house, clutching her then three-month-old daughter to her chest.
“They told us to move out or get crushed under the bulldozer. They didn’t even give us time to take food items for my child. It was raining and my child was shivering in my arms when I tried to keep her covered with my own soaking wet headscarf,” Bano told The Wire. Affected locals say they were left out of their rubbished homes with all their belongings, even food trapped under the rubble. Many of them had to borrow money from their relatives to feed their family. Bano and mother’s like her did not have answers when their kids questioned them about their lost homes and why their stomachs would constantly growl under tenements.
Even after eight long months of homelessness and hunger, several victims of demolition that The Wire met with claimed that while the authorities have maintained in court that they had informed all residents in the area about the demolition, there was no such notice issued.
Muslim-free Gir Somnath?
During its visit to the district, The Wire noticed that all the nine demolished structures now constitute of mountains of rubble guarded by Gujarat Police. Every mountain of rubble has a police tenement in front of it, with at least one police personnel guarding it.
Demolitions are becoming a regular occurrence in the Gir Somnath district. Despite the Supreme Court’s September 17 interim order which stayed demolitions across the country without its permission till October 1, Gujarat authorities demolished not one but nine Islamic structures. Issa Patel, a local, believes that this is a calculated move across the country to reduce Muslims to homeless beggars.
“They don’t want Muslims in this holy district. From our position of helplessness, we can see how the law is different for Muslims and different for Hindus,” he said.
In March 2025 as well, Gujarat government authorities demolished another Islamic shrine in Junagadh amid an operation that was carried out late in the night amid heavy police deployment.
Amid this repetitive and rigorous pattern geared towards toppling the sites of worship belonging to one particular religion, an RTI filed by the editor of a Gujarat newspaper has exposed the biases that manifest in the form of demolitions orchestrated at the behest of the BJP government.
View of the Somnath Temple from the site of the razed shrines. Photo: Tarushi Aswani
After the demolitions that disturbed the Muslims of Gir Somnath district, Mir Khan Makrani, the founding editor of Lekhmala News, filed a RTI (Right to Information) application questioning the Gujarat Directorate of Archaeology on its standpoint regarding the demolitions.
In its RTI reply, the Directorate responses made it sound plainly ‘Hindu’, Makrani said.
The Wire accessed the RTI responses filed by the Directorate to Makrani’s application – but the responses give rise to even more questions.
Upon Makrani seeking a response as to why the Haji Mangrol Dargah was demolished, the Directorate claimed that the said Dargah was in a residential area and had recently been renovated, with tiling work and cement flooring. Despite the Dargah being registered under the Waqf Act in 1964, the Directorate called it a new construction, suitable for being demolished.
In the same manner, when asked about the demolition of Mayapuri Dargah and Pir Silar Shah Dargah, registered under the Waqf Act in 1965, the Directorate stated that both of them appeared to be newly constructed buildings and lacked any marker of historicity. While all three shrines had been registered with Gujarat Waqf Board at least four decades ago, the Directorate used their renovation to declare them unfit as sites of historical and religious significance.
Meanwhile, the Directorate itself has called for the renovation of Rudreshwar Mahadev Mandir, Prachin Jain Mandir, Veneshwar Mahadev Mandir and Veraval Darwaza in Gir Somnath district. The office has also shown concern for their historicity and decaying structure, calling for renovation and preservation of damaged portions as it feels their historicity is visible despite certain portions being newly cemented and renovated.
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