- Al Jazeera
India – Over 300 Muslim homes and shops have been destroyed by authorities in India's Haryana state in just four days, almost a week after a deadly attack on a mosque by a Hindu mob in a Muslim-majority district in the northern region.
Authorities launched a demolition campaign against Muslim homes and buildings in Nuh, Haryana's only Muslim-majority district, on Thursday.
This follows an attack by Hindus on a mosque that killed five Muslim worshippers early last week, and another attack that killed four Muslims on a train.
The violence first erupted on July 31 and quickly spilled over into adjacent areas, including the business hub of Gurugram, which neighbors New Delhi. Authorities accused "illegal" tenants and shops of being involved in the attacks on Hindu processions in the district.
Para aktivis India melakukan unjuk rasa menentang kekerasan antaretnis.
- AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan.
"I was heartbroken. My family and children depended on the rent we receive from the shops. We had rented out the shops to both Hindus and Muslims," Abdul Rasheed said, adding that police locked him in a bus when a bulldozer destroyed his shop.
He said authorities "gave no notice or showed any order, and bulldozed everything."
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pursuit of a “Hindu first” agenda since coming to power in 2014 has stoked communal tension in India. In recent years authorities in some states ruled by Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have demolished what they allege as “illegal” houses of people accused of crimes and of participating in religious clashes, many of whom Muslims.
"This is vengeance. They are destroying hotels, shops and homes. There is no appeal and hearing,” fifty-year-old Abdul Rasheed said. "We have been handed a begging bowl."
He is among residents and owners of more than 300 Muslim homes and businesses bulldozed by the state's right-wing BJP government during the past four days in yet another instance of collective and selective punishment of Muslims, who form nearly 77 percent of Nuh’s 280,000 residents.
Haryana's authorities deny any link between the clashes and the demolition campaign, claiming that they raze homes and shops to stop “illegal encroachments” on public lands. But several rights groups have denounced the authorities for the demolitions.
In the wake of the cashes, more than 150 Muslims were arrested for alleged violence, local police said on Monday.
"There may be one or two people from the ‘other side’ but almost all of those arrested from Nuh are Muslim," said Tahir Husain, a lawyer defending most of the arrested, calling the arrests "unlawful and reckless."
The government's crackdown has forced hundreds of people from homes in fear, "The streets have been abandoned and the atmosphere is worse than the COVID-19 lockdown. At least there was no terror in the hearts of people at that time,"
The latest incidents follow increasing violence targeting India’s Muslim minority carried out by Hindu nationalists who have been emboldened by Modi’s silence on such attacks since he came to power.
