• The Masjid Akhonji in New Delhi, which its caretakers say is around 600 years old
  • A heavy police presence had barricaded roads outside the grounds on Thursday and refused access to the site

Bulldozers have knocked down a centuries-old mosque in India’s capital, a member of the building’s managing committee said on Thursday, during a demolition drive to remove “illegal” structures from a forest reserve.

The demolition comes at a sensitive time in India with nationalist activists emboldened in their long campaign for the replacement of several prominent mosques with Hindu temples.

The Masjid Akhonji in New Delhi, which its caretakers say is around 600 years old, was home to 22 students enrolled in an Islamic boarding school.

It was torn down on Tuesday in a forest of Mehrauli, an affluent neighbourhood dotted with centuries-old ruins from settlements predating modern Delhi.

Mohammad Zaffar, a member of the mosque’s managing committee, told AFP that it had not received any prior notice before a demolition carried out “in the dark of the night.”