After being in police custody for two nights, Indian teenager Somaiya Fatima was released prematurely to watch live footage of him breaking a claw in the walls of her childhood home.
Residence is one of several residences and businesses even By terminating employees this year, in a campaign officials have campaigned as a steadfast response to the fight against illegal construction and criminal activity.
But rights groups have condemned the “promoting justice” by India’s Hindu nationalist government as an illegal exercise in mass punishment, and many of the campaign’s victims have one thing in common.
Fatima said, “We are Muslims and that is why we are being targeted. AFP,
The 19-year-old was arrested along with her family after her father was accused of masterminding a major public protest in the northern city of Allahabad last month.
It was one of several rallies across India last month that condemned the ruling party’s spokesperson for making provocative remarks about Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) during a televised debate. burst into anger around the Muslim world.
The day Fatima was released, she was sitting in a relative’s living room when she received footage of the destruction of her home on her phone.
He said the demolition was a lesson for Muslims who were tempted to “speak” against the government.
“They have instilled fear in an entire community,” she said. “Now everyone looks at their house and thinks that if it happened to us, it could happen to them too.”
‘No sympathy’
Fatima’s home state of Uttar Pradesh is ruled by Yogi Adityanath, a saffron-clad Hindu monk who is seen as a possible successor to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In office, he has endorsed the bulldozer as a symbol of his commitment to law and order and as a potential tool to use against “troublemakers”.
Adityanath’s followers celebrated his successful campaign for re-election as chief minister earlier this year by riding atop the excavator, while the bulldozer tattoo became a minor fad among supporters of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
Since then “bulldozer politics” has spread elsewhere in the country and demolition drives have been swiftly launched on the heels of an outbreak of religious unrest.
Following a violent confrontation between Hindus and Muslims who offered Ramzan prayers at the back of a religious procession in April, authorities in Delhi knocked in front of nearly two dozen Muslim shops and a mosque, defying a court order.
Officials say demolition incidents are legitimate because they only target buildings constructed without legal approval.
But victims of the campaign deny that their residences are illegal, and say they have not been given a legally required notice period to dispute the demolition orders.
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Fathima’s father’s lawyer KK Rai said, “Fatima’s house was demolished without any sympathy in the presence of hundreds of police and hundreds of cameras.” AFP,
“There is no comparison to this cruelty.”
Critics of the government say the campaign is the latest manifestation of the BJP’s discriminatory policies towards India’s 200 million Muslim minorities.
“He has an ideological commitment that in India he has to make Muslims second class citizens, socially humiliate them and destroy their property,” Rai said.
Amnesty International said last month that the demolitions were part of a selective and “vicious” crackdown on Indian Muslims who dared to speak out against the discrimination faced by them.
‘Sleepless nights’
Many Muslims living in Uttar Pradesh now fear that their own homes are being decided to be destroyed after their family members participated in last month’s protests.
“We now have sleepless nights and restless days,” said Mohammad Javed, a resident of Saharanpur, who was ordered to vacate his house immediately after his brother was arrested for taking part in a demonstration in that city. was. ,
A week after Fatima’s arrest, a bulldozer was erected outside the police station where her home once used to be.
In its place piles of bricks and concrete have heightened the sense of belonging to a pariah community.
She recalled that her house was torn down on a YouTube livestream of a news channel, as her phone screen was flooded with comments from the public praising the demolition.
“I was born there and spent my whole life there,” Fatima said. “But it was clear that people were happy to see someone’s house destroyed.”