Nuh violence: 1,208 structures razed by Haryana govt, mostly of 1 community
People whose properties were demolished claimed they were not given any notice by the administration or even informed before the drive began.
One district. 11 towns and hamlets. Five days. 1,208 buildings and other structures — overwhelmingly Muslim-owned. 37 sites. 72.1 acres.

That’s the demolition track record of the Haryana government in Nuh district following communal violence in the region in which six people were killed and 88 injured.
Also Read: Properties demolished in Nuh were legal, say local residents
The numbers, separately confirmed by two people with direct knowledge of the matter, with a random sampling cross-checked by HT’s reporters through field visits — in every location we visited, the property was found to be owned by Muslims — would likely have been higher if not for the Punjab & Haryana high court’s intervention on August 7. The court asked the state if it was indulging in “ethnic cleansing” given the one-sidedness of the demolitions before staying them.
According to official data, the demolished properties were spread across the cities and villages of Nuh, Nalhar, Punhana, Tauru, Nangal Mubarakpur, Shahpur, Aagon, Adbar Chowk, Nalhar Road, Tiranga Chowk and Nagina. It was among the largest demolitions the region has seen.
Jawahar Yadav, officer on special duty (OSD) to Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, said that officials from the town and country planning department, Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP), police department, forest department and local panchayats were involved in identifying the properties that needed to be demolished.
“A meeting was held on August 1 and records were scanned by each official from their areas and based on the statements of the suspects involved in the violence, the drive was carried out. The houses razed were of all those who were either arrested or identified or were illegal establishments,” he said.
Also Read: In Nuh clashes lurk old patterns of sectarianism
Yadav said they had taken legal opinions and checked all the records before they started the drive to ensure all rules were followed. He insisted that a notice was given on June 30, although this would mean that this was done before the committee he spoke of met on August 1.
Nuh district commissioner Dhirendra Khadgata, speaking to HT, also claimed to have valid reasons to carry out the demolitions: illegal encroachments on government land; developments on forest land; buildings on HSVP land; houses without occupation certificates; structures built without any change in land-use on agricultural land; properties without approved building plans; or buildings used by rioters to throw stones and petrol bombs at the Hindu religious procession on July 31.
Everything but the last is cause enough to justify demolition — provided due process is followed.
People whose properties were demolished were not given any notice by the administration or even informed before the drive began.
Also Read: Nuh, a troubled district to a communal tinderbox?
For instance, Liyakat Ali, who owns a tiles showroom in Kherli Kankar village, said a demolition notice was posted a few minutes before his outlet was demolished; that he had registered the property and was running it for six years without receiving any notice from the administration.
Prashant Panwar, former deputy commissioner of Nuh, said the building did not have an approved building plan and was constructed illegally.
But the demolition does seem to have been indiscriminate. In fact the most common thread, if there is one, was that the properties belonged to people of one community.
For instance, the kiosk of Hamid Mohammad, registered with the Nuh municipal corporation was demolished. Renu Sogan, additional deputy commissioner of Nuh, said that she has no record of the demolition drive and why the kiosks that fall under the municipal committee were demolished.
Narendra Bijarniya , Nuh’s superintendent of police who took charge on August 4 said that action was taken against “illegal constructions and individuals involved in anti-social activities”.
“The drive was started from Tauru area, where shanties were constructed on HSVP land and, despite repeated warnings, people were not vacating the land. This was not a one-day decision, in fact the district town planning team was already planning to carry out the demolition drive,” he added.
It isn’t clear what sort of warnings were issued, and when.
On August 3, over 250 shanties in a Rohingya camp in Tauru were bulldozed. The police offered two arguments in favour of the demolition: some of those involved in the Nuh violence were living in the shantytown; and the shanties were built on HSVP land.
Four Rohingya men were arrested for their alleged involvement in the violence, said police.
They added that the residents were all illegal immigrants from Bangladesh who had moved to Haryana from Assam.
The shantytown came up around four years ago; most people who live there work as rickshaw pullers, ragpickers, vegetable merchants, and daily wage workers.
Munjila Khatun, from Bongaigaon in Assam, said that she was collecting plastic bottles when she received a call from her son, and rushed home. “Officials had started demolition without asking us to remove our things. They broke all of our kitchen utensils, threw our bedding and asked us to leave the town,” she said.
Abdul Hussain, a vegetable vendor, said that they requested officials to give them some time but the officials accused them of being involved in the communal violence in Nuh. “We have punished us for something we did not do. They took my son who was not even present at the violence site and arrested him. We are poor people, no one is ready to listen to us,” he added. His son is 15 years old.
It’s possible that all the residents in the shantytown were Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, and not from Assam. It’s also possible that not all of them were involved in the Nuh violence.
On August 4, the second day of the drive, at least 50 houses at 10 sites that belonged to people allegedly involved in the Nuh clash were demolished in Nuh and Tauru. Police said the houses either belonged to the suspects or were used by them for pelting stones, storing weapons, and firing on people who were returning from Shiva temple in Nalhar after offering prayers.
The former deputy commissioner Prashant Panwar told HT that orders came from Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar to take action against any illegal construction and anti-social elements involved in violence.
Officials said that five acres of land that belonged to the forest department behind Nalhar Shiv Temple were cleared of encroachments. Similarly, six acres of forest land in Punhana were cleared. Similarly, a temporary shed built on two acres of land in Nangal Mubarikpur was removed, added Panwar.
The most high-profile demolition was the one in Nalhar where the houses and shops of Akram Khan, who has been booked for breaking and torching cars, and four other accused Saddam Hussain, Wahid Khan, Mausam Hussain ,and Aas Mohammad were razed.
“We were not even present at the location at the time of the violence. We have proper documents for the land and it is not at all on forest land,” said Mohammad.
Houses and shops at Khedla crossing,where cars were set ablaze, and where stones rained down on the procession from neighbouring houses were also razed. Khalid Mohammad, a tea vendor at Khedla crossing, said he shut his shop soon after he saw a mob gathering. “I shared videos of the suspects with police to help them but they still demolished my shop,” he said.
On Saturday, day 3 of the drive, structures were brought down near Shaheed Hassan Khan Mewati Hospital in Nalhar. “Illegal constructions were removed from 2.6 acres of land in front of Nalhar Medical College — over 45 illegal constructions and around 13-15 temporary illegal structures were demolished. Notices were already given to the owners of the demolished structures. The owners of some structures were also involved in the violence during the Braj Mandal Yatra,” said Nuh sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) Ashwani Kumar.
Demolitions were also carried out in Nuh, Pinangwan, Ferozepur Jhirka, Nalhar crossing, Adbar crossing and Tauru, police added. Police said over 50 teams were on the spot to help the administration during the demolition drive. Bijarniya, led the operation and said the structures and houses either belong to the suspects or were used by them for pelting stones, storing weapons, and firing at Hindu devotees.
Kumar said the properties of the suspects were identified based on a preliminary probe undertaken by the Nuh police. “We are ensuring no innocent is framed or targeted,” he said.
The demolitions continued on Sunday.
Nuh’s Congress MLA Chaudhary Aftab Ahmed said all those who have been targeted are Muslims and that some had papers for their property. “The way the Haryana government has targeted people from one community is very unfair. More than 500 people have become homeless and those who had all the documents related to their land and paid property tax annually. The allegations that they were constructed in forest or HSVP land is baseless ,” he said.
Even in Nalhar, he added, there was already a stay on any action by the authorities on the land on which the structures were demolished, and this was disregarded.
The demolitions, he claimed, were a threat to “one section of society”. In a related development, on Tuesday, 50 Haryana panchayats issued letters barring the entry of Muslim traders.
The affected families have demanded evidence from the police of their involvement in the Nuh violence.
A total of 188 people have been arrested and 57 FIRs have been registered in Nuh so far in connection with July 31 violence. Combing exercises have been conducted in 20 villages such as Mewli, Shikarpur, Jalalpur and Singar.
