Punjab and Haryana High Court stops demolition drive in Haryana’s Nuh district. Details here

Punjab and Haryana High Court has restrained the Haryana government from conducting a demolition drive in the state's Nuh district which was marred by communal violence last week. The High Court headed by Justice G S Sandhawalia took suo moto cognizance of the matter and asked the state government to not carry out any further demolition exercise until further orders. The restraining order is yet to be released and the matter will again be taken up at 2 pm. 

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Nuh Administration has demolished over 750 buildings including houses, shops and illegal structures since the drive began last week, reported Hindustan Times. Officials allege that demolished structures were built on government land and were used by the suspects during the recent communal clashes. 

According to PTI, authorities had demolished around 250 shanties on encroached government land in Tauru and areas neighbouring Nuh district on August 4. Meanwhile, authorities also on Sunday razed some illegal structures in Nuh district including a hotel-cum-restaurant named Sahara Family restaurant from where stones were allegedly pelted during a religious procession last week, reported PTI.

According to Nuh Sub-divisional Magistrate Ashwani Kumar, 16 structures were razed on Sunday including the Sahara Family Restaurant. He said that these structures were built illegally and were used by ‘hooligans’ during clashes that began last week.

Haryana Police has also arrested various Rohingya refugees in connection with the recent clashes in Nuh district. Officials say that some of these refugees have been identified for pelting stones and being part of the violence on July 31.

Nuh superintendent of police Narender Bijarniya told Hindustan Times, “We have identified a list of them who were involved in the violence and we have evidence for it and based on it the teams have arrested them,"