26 June 2004	Saturday	07 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

PESHAWAR, June 25: A portion of the courtyard of the Mahabat Khan Mosque here suddenly sank on Friday apparently because of dampness and swamp which have been eating into the base of the structure.

The accident occurred when hundreds of worshippers were performing Friday prayers. It left a 30 square feet ditch in the courtyard. However, no worshipper suffered any injury.

The Khatib of the mosque, Maulana Ashraf Qureshi, told Dawn that the water pipes under the marble floor were too old and rusted.

"The marble floor was heavy and it sank because the pipes were quite old and couldn't hold the heavy marble floor," said Maulana Qureshi.

The damaged portion of the floor has been masked and repair work has been undertaken to prevent further harm to the building.

An official of the Auqaf Department, which manages the mosque, quoted archaeologists as saying that there was no immediate threat to the structure of the 17th Century mosque. He did not agree with the assertion that underground water pipeline had caused damage to the courtyard.

He said that engineers and officials of the directorate of archaeology had examined the building. However, he added the Auqaf Department would seek opinion of experts and architects to find a durable solution.

The Mughal era Mosque in the downtown area is built on a raised terrace.

According to architects, some ill-planned beautification work done in the past was one of the major factors which caused huge damage to the structure.

On the floor, original tiles were removed in late 1980s and were replaced by white marbles on the directives of the then chief minister Aftab Khan Sherpao, who during a visit to the mosque said that marbles would add to the grandeur of the mosque.

The Auqaf department had rented out the basement area to shopkeepers.

There was no adequate ventilation and no arrangement made to allow vaporisation of water in the ponds in the courtyard of the mosque; therefore the rise in the subsoil water level in the city damaged the structure of the mosque.

Cracks also have appeared in the building and necessary repairs being done during the ongoing conservation work.