Police Guard Ujjain Mosque as Delhi Students Press for Safer Streets
Police remained deployed near Ujjain’s Shahi Masjid on Tuesday, September 29, after a confrontation over the planned removal of part of the building for a road-widening project. In Delhi, students from several Delhi University colleges were pressing a separate demand: safer streets and public spaces for women. The two developments are unrelated, but each has brought an immediate local concern into sharper public focus.
Security remains near Ujjain mosque
The Ujjain dispute concerns a portion of the mosque that falls within the alignment of a road being widened ahead of the 2028 Simhastha gathering. It does not concern a plan to remove the entire mosque. Members of the local mosque-linked committee have said they agreed, after talks with the administration, to remove the affected portion themselves.
Tensions rose on Monday as people gathered near the site. Police said stones were thrown during a confrontation and officers used tear gas to disperse the crowd. Security personnel, including Rapid Action Force members, remained in the area afterward. Shops near the mosque were being vacated as preparations for the work continued on Tuesday.
Ujjain police are also investigating videos circulated online. Superintendent of Police Pradeep Sharma said some material depicted the entire mosque being demolished, a portrayal he said was false. Police have described the videos as AI-generated and said they may have helped draw people to the site. That account remains an investigative claim: the videos’ origins and the extent of any role they played in mobilising the crowd have not been independently established.
Police said they were examining accounts that posted or shared the material as well as footage from the area to identify people involved in the confrontation. An investigation into a post does not, by itself, establish that its creator intended to provoke violence. The relevant distinction for residents is between the limited removal under discussion and online depictions of the mosque being destroyed in full.
Fahim Sikandar, a member of the mosque-linked Numainda Committee, said discussions with the administration and community representatives produced an agreement for the work to proceed peacefully. Ujjain’s Shahar Qazi, Khalil-ur-Rehman, also appealed to people not to act on rumours or gather at the site unnecessarily. Questions about the precise extent of the portion to be removed have remained part of the discussions.
Students march across Delhi University’s North Campus
In Delhi, hundreds of students marched in the rain on Monday from the Miranda House area toward the Faculty of Arts on North Campus. It was the latest in a series of demonstrations over women’s safety, following earlier gatherings near colleges in south Delhi. Organisers described Monday’s march as independently organised and open to women and queer participants.
The protests followed a reported sexual assault of a 17-year-old at Aastha Kunj Park near Kalkaji. Delhi Police have arrested three men in connection with that case. The accusation remains subject to the criminal justice process; the students’ demands extend beyond the investigation of any one incident.
Participants called for working streetlights, safer routes around colleges and accommodation, better public transport connections and access to public toilets. They described the strain of planning journeys around dark stretches of road, waiting for transport after sunset and sharing their locations with family members out of fear. Those accounts explain why students say safety cannot be measured only at a campus gate.
The organisers have also objected to responses that restrict women’s movements instead of making shared spaces safer. Students say curfews and warnings to stay indoors place the burden on those seeking to travel, study or work, while leaving concerns about lighting, transport and public access unresolved. Earlier marchers held consultations on a charter of demands, seeking changes that could be assessed beyond the day of a protest.
Neither development should be reduced to a viral image or a single slogan. In Ujjain, police must establish what circulated online and what happened at the site without treating an unverified video as evidence. In Delhi, students are asking authorities to address the everyday conditions that shape whether they can move freely. Both questions require clear, accountable responses from the institutions involved.
