Even as the dust kicked up by BJP leaders over the iconoc Taj Mahal refuses to settle down, the Uttar Pradesh Shia Central Waqf Board has called for the demolition of another celebrated heritage monument in Delhi, Humayun's tomb, saying it could be turned into a graveyard for Muslims. In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Board's Chairman, Waseem Razvi said that if acted upon, his suggestion would solve the problems the Capital's Muslims are facing in burying their dead with shrinking graveyard space acrosss the city.

Razvi said that his letter was also a response to the demand made by some Muslim organizations for land to be allocated to the community for graveyards in the National Capital Region (NCR), as there was no space in old ones. He added that the problem confronting the Muslim community in and around Delhi was a serious one and merited immediate redressal. According to Razvi, Humayun's tomb, which was not a place of worship, was built over a sprawling 35-acre expanse.

Calling for the removal of Humayun's tomb from the list of heritage monuments, Razvi's letter said that it could be considered a graveyard since it already had a grave. Moreover, Humayun belonged to a sect among Muslims which did not believe in mausoleums and therefore the demolition of the tomb would not be an unIslamic act, he said, citing the example of Saudi Arabia where the graves in one of the holiest sites in Islam in the city of Madina were demolished in 1925.

Referring to Taj Mahal, Razvi clarified that though it was a mausoleum, it was a world heritage monument and was a major source of revenue for the government.