NEW DELHI: Bulldozers have knocked down a centuries-old mosque in India's capital during a demolition drive to remove "illegal" structures from a forest reserve, a member of the building's managing committee said on Thursday. It was torn down on Tuesday in a forest of Mehrauli, an affluent neighborhood dotted with centuries-old ruins from settlements predating modern Delhi. "The rubble from the mosque and the graves has been removed and dumped somewhere else." The demolition took place barely a week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a grand new Hindu temple in the northern city of Ayodhya, built on grounds once home to the centuries-old Babri mosque. That mosque was torn down in 1992 in a campaign spearheaded by members of Modi's party, sparking sectarian riots that killed 2,000 people nationwide, most of them Muslims.

Source: Manila Times February 02, 2024 04:11 UTC