The Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday bulldozed a mosque and three adjacent houses at Raibuzurg village in Sambhal that were allegedly built on government land.

Tehsildar Dhirendra Kumar said the owners of the buildings were given time to prove their ownership of the properties, but they failed to do so.

“The encroachers had built a mosque, two houses and a marriage hall there. We had submitted a report with the district magistrate (Rajendra Pensiya) and initiated action on his direction,” he said.

Circle officer Kuldeep Kumar said the structures were constructed illegally on government land.

“The administration had served notices to the owners and they had sought three more days last week. They had said they would themselves raze these structures, but didn’t do so. We finally demolished them on Tuesday,” Kumar said.

A team of district officials, including electricity department personnel, had raided 52 places in Raisati and Nakhasa on Monday. Pensiya claimed that they found 101 properties with illegal power connections in these areas, including at Mustafa Masjid in Hayatnagar.

On January 4, the Sambhal administration had bulldozed Madina Masjid at Salempur Salar village after serving a notice to its management committee two weeks ago.

The graveyard of Mallak Shah Baba near Shankar Chowk in Sambhal town was flattened a day later.

The administration had started the demolition drive in the wake of the violence that killed four people in Sambhal during a court-appointed survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid on November 24, 2024. Some Hindutva groups claimed that the mosque was built on the ruins of a Shiva temple demolished by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.

As many as 20 structures, mostly belonging to the Muslim community, have been razed in Sambhal since then. Pensiya has said the district authorities have identified dozens of illegal buildings in the district for demolition.