Protests halt demolition in New Delhi Muslim neighbourhood

The demolition of Muslim neighbourhood in New Delhi was prevented following protests by residents and opposition party workers. No buildings were razed down before the bulldozers retreated.

The new law would fast-track naturalisation for persecuted religious minorities from some neighbouring Islamic countries, but excludes Muslims, sparking many to call it discriminatory.
AP

The new law would fast-track naturalisation for persecuted religious minorities from some neighbouring Islamic countries, but excludes Muslims, sparking many to call it discriminatory.

Anti-Muslim sentiment and attacks have risen across India in the past month, including stone throwing between Hindu and Muslim groups during religious processions, followed by demolition drives in a few states where many Muslim-owned properties were razed down by local authorities.

This was most recently seen last month in a northwest neighbourhood in New Delhi where bulldozers destroyed several Muslim properties before the Supreme Court halted the drive. 

The demolitions were carried out days after communal violence there left several injured and sparked arrests.

Amid heavy police presence, bulldozers arrived in Shaheen Bagh, a neighbourhood that in 2020 became a site of intense protest after the Parliament passed a controversial bill the previous year that amended the country's citizenship law.

The new law would fast-track naturalisation for persecuted religious minorities from some neighbouring Islamic countries, but excludes Muslims, sparking many to call it discriminatory.

It unleashed months of demonstrations from across India and Shaheen Bagh quickly became a symbol of the resistance, with the protests there led by a peaceful sit-in by Muslim women along a highway that passed through the neighbourhood.

READ MORE: India's top court halts demolitions in New Delhi's Muslim neighbourhood

“Vote-bank politics”

Officials have said these demolition drives target illegal buildings and not any particular religious group. But critics argue such moves are the latest attempt to harass and marginalise Muslims, who are 14 percent of India’s 1.4 billion population, and point to a pattern of rising religious polarisation under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.

As the bulldozers drove away, Mohammed Niyaz, a 47-year-old resident in the neighbourhood, called it “vote-bank politics” intended to divide the Hindu and Muslim communities.

Residents in Shaheen Bagh also questioned the timing of the move to bring in bulldozers, saying many buildings in the neighbourhood have existed for decades with no interference from local authorities.

Previously, officials termed the recent demolition drives as “routine exercises” to bring down illegal properties. 

READ MORE: Mumbai mosques forced to turn down the volume of calls to prayer

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