HC puts brakes on bulldozers in Nuh

GURUGRAM/CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday halted the demolition drive in Nuh where authorities were bulldozing “illegally-constructed” buildings following communal clashes last week, while unidentified men allegedly set fire to a mazar in adjoining Gurugram.

The court of Justice GS Sandhawalia took suo motu cognisance of the exercise in Nuh and directed the Haryana government not to carry out any further demolition.

Officials had said some of the buildings were used by rioters when a VHP procession was targeted by a stone-pelting mob on July 31. It led to communal clashes that spread to Gurugram.

Six, including two home guards and a cleric, were killed in the violence. In the early hours of Monday, some prayer material at a mazar, visited both by Muslims and Hindus in Gurugram’s Khandsa village, was set afire, said the shrine’s caretaker.

According to a complaint, he received a phone call around 1.30 am about a fire in the shrine, which was soon brought under control. But the pray material kept inside the mazar were burnt.