Hyderabad: A group of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers protesting outside Madarsa Darul Uloom Noomaniya housed inside the historic Jama Masjid Hussaini, also called Masjid-e-Hussaini in Sultanpur, demanding the closure of the madarsa alleging it is illegal may seem like a perfect recipe for creating communal disharmony in the communally sensitive Balapur area of Hyderabad. But there is more to it than meets the eye.
Two weeks ago, this was the scene in Sultanpur. The police gave protection to the madarsa by stationing two commandos outside it. But this wasn’t the first time the madarsa came to news.
It was on April 16, 2025, an issue arose between Hindus of the colony and the madarsa, when some children disrespected a sentimental stone called ‘Bodrayi‘ in that locality. The police had to be called in then.
Bodrai is the center of any village, which is not just religiously, but also emotionally sensitive issue for the villagers in Telangana. In many villages of Telangana, an annual festival called ‘Bodrayi panduga‘ is celebrated, when the entire village is literally fortified and nobody is allowed to enter or exit that village on that particular festive day.
Behind all the communal flavour being given to the issue, there is a fight for ownership of the Qutub Shahi era mosque that is more than 300 years, under which there were 8 acres and 18 guntas – most of which have now gone into the hands of others (mostly non-Muslims) through plotting in the last few years.
Only 1,000 square yard land which includes the mosque, is remaining.
For the past 6 months, there has been an issue going on between one Akbar Khan, who claims to be the Moulana running the madarsa inside the mosque for the past 7 years. He claims to have taken the mosque under lease for 10 years from one Syed Saber Hussaini.
Akbar Khan alleges that one Mohd Rafi, who used to offer services in the mosque when nobody used to attend the mosque, has been trying to stake claim to 200 square yards of the 1,000 square yards of remaining land.
“He is bringing BJP’s Rama Krishna Reddy and his party workers to exert pressure on us to close down the madarsa, so that he can illegally occupy that land. In the wake of the ‘Marwari Go Back campaign,’ BJP made it an issue claiming that Rohingyas were lodged in out madarsa, whereas all our students are from Telangana’s rural and urban areas,” Akbar claims.
He also adds that the BJP workers have been claiming that the land belongs to a cattle barn. He told Siasat.com that all the land belongs to Waqf Board, but most of it has been illegally sold, except that 1,000 square yard land.
When questioned why he has taken the land on lease from some third party if it was Waqf property, he said that it was for the owner and the Waqf to resolve between themselves as to whom the land belonged to.
Presently there are 75 students receiving education at Madarsa Darul Uloom Noomaniya, and according to Akbar Khan, the children are also taught English, Maths and Science, along with the Quran and religious education.
When the children attain 13, then they are free to choose regular education (in his words- secular education) too.
Khan told Siasat.com that only secular education needs permission, and that religious education is protected under Article 19 and 21 of the Constitution. He claims that he has spent up to Rs 30 lakh on building structures inside the masjid land.
Syed Saber Husaini, the one claiming ownership of the masjid, has disputed Akbar Khan’s allegations. He could be seen showing the gift deed of the land which he inherited from his father through ancestry, to a local news channel few months ago.
He claims that generations of his family have been serving the masjid, and that after all the land was taken away, the remaining 1,000 sq yd land was assigned by his father, to the masjid and a house. He said that he had engaged Mohd Rafi just to take care of the mosque temporarily, and that whatever structures came up on that premises and renovations were done by his family.
“In 2013, my father spent Rs 14-15 lakh of his retirement benefits, to complete the mosque. In 2016 he passed away, but we completed the rest of the construction work in 2019-20,” Saber claimed.
“When he took the land on lease I told him that he may raise the height of the rooms that we had already built, and he did only that work. It was not even his own money. He sourced funds from abroad. Even the shed which he claims to have laid, was done by my cousin for Rs 7,000,” Saber claimed, speaking with a local news channel.
He assured that as long as his successors are in that house, the mosque will be taken good care of.
According to one Jahangir, who is Saber’s man, the issue between Saber and Akbar started when the latter tried to build structures in the open land presently used for parking in front of the masjid, for which he had not obtained permission from Saber.
Saber wanted to change the lease term from 10 years to 11 months, and wanted to take control of the mosque along with his aides including Mohd Rafi on January 13, 2025.
According to Mohd Rafi, Akbar Khan violated the lease conditions by removing the security password of the CCTV cameras installed by him, erased the masjid committee registration details from the board located at the entrance of the masjid, and tried to construct 2 rooms for security and washrooms, and also cut down the tamarind trees on that land.
He also claimed that all the students housed in the madarsa were from Bihar, and that the locals (non-Muslims) backed by BJP were not having any issues with the operation of the mosque, but were facing issues because of the madarsa activities that were creating disturbance to them.
Rafi claimed that when 15 of them went to the mosque to settle the issue and make Akbar Khan answerable, he apologised and assured that he won’t repeat it again. However, the very night Akbar lodged a complaint against Saber and his batch, alleging that they locked the madarsa children, made the masjid inaccessible to public, and that they had come to attack him.
Rafi also shared a police complaint filed in Meerpet police station against Akbar Khan in the past, when he allegedly tried to occupy a masjid there, with the same modus operandi.
Meanwhile, the residents of the colony protested along with BJP state secretary Sreenivas Reddy, and Andela Sriramulu Yadav who contested for Maheshwaram MLA election, held a protest demanding the closure of the madarsa.
A statement was issued by Majlis Bachao Tehreek (MBT) spokesperson Amjed Ullah Khan the very evening from Balapur police station, accusing Hindutva groups of trying to close down a madarsa from the premises of a historic masjid.
When Siasat.com sought clarification from the Telangana Waqf Board as to whether the 8 acres and 18 guntas belonged to the Board, an immediate clarification couldn’t be received.
However, according to Rafi, Akbar Khan has been threatening the colony residents that he will get them vacated from those lands if they opposed the madarsa, claiming that it was all Waqf land. On the other hand, Rafi also claims that the 8 acres were sold by Saber. Though claiming to be the ‘legal heir,’ Saber submitted before the media that 8 acres have already gone into others’ hands over the years.
In this tug-of-war, the real question that remains, is why nobody is trying to claim ownership to those 8 acres of land, when it previously belonged to the masjid, and why the dispute was only with regard to 1,000 square yard land. There is also the question of why the masjid remained unmanaged before Rafi and Saber Hussaini took physical possession of the masjid 6 years ago and began developing it.
Activists wonder whether the Waqf Board will intervene at least now and give some clarification on the allegations being made by the disputing parties about the land belonging to Waqf, or if the land has for changed hands for real. There are also those who are surprised at the striking coincidence and similarity of the masjid’s name with the legal heir’s last name, and the last name of the Telangana Waqf Board chairman.
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