6 ay önce

Five killed in clashes following Islamic school demolition in India

Tensions escalate in India as clashes follow the demolition of Islamic structures, amid growing concerns over BJP-led states selectively targeting Muslim sites nationwide.

Reuters

Modi's BJP-led states face accusations of selectively demolishing Muslim homes, businesses, and worship sites, according to rights groups. / Photo: Reuters

Five people have been killed in India and dozens more injured after religious clashes sparked by the destruction of a religious school, officials said, the latest in a spate of demolitions targeting Islamic structures.

Vandana Singh, an official in the Haldwani district where the violence broke out, said on Friday that two had been killed in the clashes, without giving further details.

"Dozens are being treated in various hospitals of the city," Singh told a press conference, adding that several police officers were among the injured.

"Orders have been given to shoot the rioters on sight," she added.

Singh said that vehicles had been set alight by protesters.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said the government would punish anyone found to have participated in the unrest.

Authorities in Haldwani, on the other hand, suspended internet services, closed schools, imposed a curfew, and banned large gatherings after the violence broke out.

Mounting criticism over selectively targeting Muslims

Calls for India to enshrine Hindu supremacy in law have rapidly grown louder since Modi took office in 2014, making the country's roughly 210-million-strong Muslim minority increasingly anxious about their future.

Thursday's violence comes at an especially sensitive time, with nationalist activists stepping up a long campaign to replace several prominent mosques with Hindu temples.

Last month Modi inaugurated a grand new temple in the northern city of Ayodhya, built on the site of a centuries-old mosque that was destroyed by Hindu zealots in 1992.

That demolition in 1992 sparked sectarian riots that killed 2,000 people nationwide, most of them Muslims.

The clashes also come days after Uttarakhand's legislature passed a polarising common civil code to replace existing religious laws governing marriage, divorce and inheritance.

Muslim groups across India have objected to the new law, saying it was a violation of their religious freedoms.

Authorities in various Indian states governed by Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have also been accused by rights groups of selectively targeting Muslim homes, businesses and worship sites for demolition.