The authorities dismantled multiple Muslim-owned makeshift shop fronts in India’s financial capital Mumbai after violence against Muslims broke out following the opening of a divisive Hindu temple by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi this week.
On January 23, the municipality officials demolished 40 shop fronts on Mohammad Ali Road after minor clashes broke out on January 21 in parts of Mumbai.
Mohammed Ali Road is a major downtown thoroughfare and center of local Muslim commerce in Mumbai that has also seen weekend clashes.
"I cannot fathom why this was done," Abdul Haseeb Khan, owner of a restaurant hit in the demolition drive, told AFP.
"If they didn't want these structures here, they should have informed us and we would have removed it. This is no way to take action," Khan added.
As per reports at least in one incident Hindus chanting religious slogans passed through a Muslim neighborhood on the mega city's outskirts creating panic among the local Muslim population.
Processions in Mumbai had been celebrating the opening of the Hindu shrine, which was built atop a centuries-old mosque demolished by Hindu extremists in 1992 -- an incident that sparked the most deadly sectarian riots since the country’s independence.
Local media outlets said at least 13 people had been arrested for participating in the weekend clashes.
"We were undertaking deep clearing of the road in which some temporary hawkers and so forth were removed," a local municipal officer said.
Human rights groups have condemned the demolition practice as unlawful regarding it as a collective punishment that disproportionately targets India’s Muslim minority.
In recent years demolition drives have been employed in numerous Indian states ruled by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) against the Muslims dismantling their homes and business establishments.
Indian officials customarily say that the demolitions are lawful.
This claim is disputed by victims, who say they are not given the legally required notice period to dispute demolition orders.
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