A fire that broke out at 02:00 local time on Sunday night for an unknown reason reduced the historical Hadji Pasha Mosque in the Brçko region on the Croatian border in northeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina to ashes despite the efforts of firefighters.
Mustafa Efendi Gobeljic, the Chief Imam of the Brçko Islamic Union Assembly, stated that there have been frequent power outages in recent days and that they think the fire may have started for this reason, but they are waiting for the results of the investigations.
The Brçko Islamic Union Assembly held an extraordinary meeting and decided to rebuild the mosque with a joint effort. Milorad Dodik, the President of the Serb Republic (RS), one of the two entities in the country, said that they will allocate 25,000 euros from the budget for the renovation work.
Built by Hacı Paşa Mujkanović, who was exiled from the city of Sabac in the first half of the 19th century, the historical mosque, one of the important symbols of the region, served as a Naqshbandi Tekke.