The Haryana administration continued to raze "illegal constructions" with bulldozers in violence-hit Nuh, for the third day on Saturday. The Sub Divisional Magistrate Ashwani Kumar said that owners of some illegal structures were also involved in the violence during the Braj Mandal religious yatra which has killed six people so far even though the Nuh Deputy Commissioner Prashant Panwar had earlier denied that the demolition was linked to the recent violence.
Many houses and shops were bulldozed on Friday with Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij indicating that the demolitions were part of action against those involved in the communal clashes. Around 250 shanties of migrants living Tauru town and other areas in neighbouring Nuh district were bulldozed on Friday for encroaching upon government land.
On Saturday, the demolition drive continued on 2.6 acres of land around Nalhar Medical College in the state. Around 15 other temporary structures were also demolished as part of the drive, police said. “These were illegal constructions. Notices were already given to owners of the demolished structures," SDM Ashwani Kumar said.
The local MLA and deputy leader of the Congress Legislature Party, Aftab Ahmed, has protested against such action. "In Nuh, it is not only the houses of the poor that are being demolished, but the faith and trust of the common people is being destroyed as well. Villagers have said that houses and shops were demolished today, by giving notice in back date of one month. Government is taking wrong action to hide administrative failures, this is repressive policy," he tweeted along with a video of the demolition.
According to the police, 141 people have been arrested and over 55 cases registered in Nuh in connection with the violence. While the state home minister earlier claimed that the Nuh clashes were pre-planned and there was a 'mastermind' behind it, a senior police officer told PTI, that the investigation has revealed that there was no mastermind behind the clashes.
Meanwhile, the aftermath of the violence has left countless of migrants homeless. Several of them are either returning home out of fear or fleeing to neighbouring Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh in search of work.
