Human rights groups, Muslim bodies, and opposition party leaders called upon the Bharatiya Janata Party government in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh to stop the demolition of homes and shops belonging to Muslims in state’s Khargone city.
A demolition drive was carried out in Khargone earlier this week, a day after Hindutva violence broke out in the city against Muslims during a procession on the occasion of the Hindu festival Ram Navami.
Homes and shops belonging to Muslims had been razed while Hindutva rioters didn’t face any police actions. The police had claimed that the homes that were demolished belonged to those who had thrown stones at the procession.
Congress former chief Rahul Gandhi said, Indian government should run a bulldozer over problems of the people such as inflation and unemployment but the BJP’s bulldozer is carrying “hatred and terror.
On the other hand, Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind president Maulana Mahmood Madani wrote to Indian Home Minister Amit Shah, seeking his intervention to stop “harassment” of Muslims in Khargone, where he has said that properties belonging to Muslims were being “selectively razed.”
Mahmood Madani said he has been informed that so far 16 houses and 29 commercial shops, mostly belonging to Muslims, have been demolished.
JIH Vice President Professor Salim Engineer said, in Madhya Pradesh, there are cases of extreme cruelty where people’s houses are being demolished by bulldozers.
