Violence regarding 'madrasa' demolition leaves 2 dead in India

By Ahmad Adil

NEW DELHI (AA) - Shoot on sight orders were issued after fighting left at least two dead and dozens injured in a town in northern Uttarakhand state during a demolition drive of “illegal structures," officials said Friday.

Residents in the Banbhoolpura area in Haldwani in the Nainital district said authorities conducted a drive to demolish a madrasa, or Muslim school, and a Muslim prayer hall but officials claimed the structures were “not registered in government records.”

Authorities imposed a curfew and have shut down the internet as tensions persist in the area, said officials. Police said shoot on sight orders have been issued for miscreants.

Nainital top official Vandana Singh told reporters that structures "stood on encroached government land and demolition was carried out, after notice was served, complying with the court orders."

The drive was not toward any particular community, according to Singh, who said officials and police "were attacked, their vehicles torched by the protestors without any provocation.”

Residents said the madrasa and the “prayer hall” existed for years.

“A notice was served … a few days ago the authorities sealed them. Yesterday officials carried out the demolition,” a resident told Anadolu. “Curfew has been imposed and people are inside their homes.”

Dozens of people. including police personnel, were injured in clashes Thursday when angry residents, including women, took to the streets to protest the demolition.

The state’s top elected official, Pushkar Singh Dhami, wrote on X that authorities will take “strictest action against rioters and miscreants.”

“Police have been given clear instructions to deal strictly with unruly elements. Every rioter who indulged in arson and stone pelting is being identified, no miscreant who disturbs harmony and peace will be spared,” he said.

Uttarakhand state earlier this week became the first province in the country to pass a Uniform Civil Code law -- a common set of personal laws for all, irrespective of religious beliefs.

Last month, authorities in the Indian capital demolished a mosque believed to have been built 600 hundreds years ago. The mosque maintained that no notice was served before it was destroyed.