Protesting residents hold up banners asking previous Hindu owner to take house back
A Muslim couple in northern India were subjected to Islamophobic attacks as residents of a posh neighbourhood protested against them buying a house there.
The couple, both doctors, were reportedly forced out of their newly purchased house in Moradabad city in Uttar Pradesh state after their Hindu neighbours objected to them moving in because of their religion.
The Hindu residents said the previous owner, a Hindu doctor, had sold the house to the Muslim family without consulting them.
“This is a Hindu society where over 400 Hindu families live. We don’t want anyone from the other communities to reside here,” one protester told PTI news agency.
The protest, which began on Tuesday, saw the Hindu residents hold up banners asking the previous owner to take his house back.
The protesters said they had filed a complaint with the district administration and the local police over the Muslim family taking a house in the society.
“If one house is sold, others might follow, and soon the area could lose its character,” another protester was quoted by the Times of India as saying.
Ashok Bajaj, who previously owned the house, told the BBC that the Muslim couple were not comfortable moving in after the protest.
“The controversy is changing the fabric of the city. Our intention was not to create any kind of unrest with this transaction,” Dr Bajaj said. He pointed out that there was no law against this transaction.
The Hindu residents marched to the district magistrate’s office and filed an objection to the sale of the house.
“We are talking to the concerned parties and trying for a unanimous, amicable solution to it,” the magistrate, Anuj Kumar Singh, told reporters.
Although religious minorities make up about 20 per cent of India’s 1.3 billion population, they have been suffering increasing persecution since 2014, when Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party came to power, human rights groups say.
In its annual report, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom noted “severe violations of religious freedom” in India, citing violence against religious minorities and demolition of their homes and places of worship.
The Indian government has denied such allegations.
In August, Human Rights Watch said Mr Modi had made Islamophobic remarks in more than 100 campaign speeches during India’s general election, which he won for a record third consecutive term in office.
