In yet another anti-Muslim development in India, the houses of Muslims in North Delhi have been bulldozed by the local municipal corporation despite the Supreme Court’s order to stop the anti-encroachment drive.
According to Indian media reports, the North Delhi Municipal Corporation launched an anti-encroachment drive in Delhi’s Jahangirpuri on Wednesday. Bulldozers rolled into the area quickly and began demolishing houses and shops that belonged to the Muslim community.
The Supreme Court had stayed the demolition drive and the matter will be heard again on Thursday.
Earlier on April 16, communal clashes broke out in Delhi’s Jahangirpuri area during a Hanuman Jayanti procession. The extremist Hindus looted Muslim areas and tortured Muslims. Police arrested dozens of Muslims instead of arresting the Hindu attackers and many of them are still in jail.
On Tuesday, BJP Delhi Chief Adesh Gupta alleged that those accused of rioting in Jahangirpuri had built ‘illegal constructions’ in the area and demanded that these be demolished.
Demonstrating anti-Muslim sentiments, the local authorities started the demolition drive and started bulldozing the houses of Muslims that were built forty years ago and the gates of the mosque and nearby shops.
The Indian Supreme Court had ordered not to demolish the houses and shops. But the local authorities did not stop the drive and continued the demolition. Some of the media outlets reported that the houses and shops of the Muslims were being demolished on the orders of the local Hindu extremist leaders.
Last month, a high court in India’s Karnataka state ruled that the hijab was not “essential” to Islam and also upheld a state government order that had banned headscarves in classrooms. For the last couple of years, the Modi-led government has passed out many laws that were anti-Muslim in nature while in many local cases, authorities shut their eyes to the brutalities occurring against the Muslim community.
