Pointing to the bruises on his arms, Lakshman said: “They hit me with their guns when I tried to stop them. I told them to kill me instead of destroying our holy place.”
Bhanwari recalled that the demolition teams arrived around 11 in the morning. She was preparing breakfast when she heard the thundering noise of a bulldozer. She rushed outside, only to receive instructions to bring her bed, cupboard and other essential items outside the house. “I watched my house go down in just minutes and I couldn't do anything.”
She added, during the demolition, the area was cordoned off by the police and Rangers were deployed in tents. Outsiders were not allowed to enter, she added.
Savita was among those 40 people who lost her house. “The dowry that I had given to my daughter for her wedding is all buried here,” she said with tears. With her husband out of station, she and her three children spent the night under the open sky.
There are around 150 Hindus in the neighbourhood and nearly four families live in each of the houses that were destroyed, according to an elderly resident, Kaali Das.
“People were living in cramped houses, separated only by curtains. Over here, we live like animals,” he said, adding that some of these houses were as high as three storeys.
Angered by the builders' actions, the crowd demanded the government arrange tickets to India for them. “If you don't want us, we will go to India,” screamed a woman. Another man added that, “our temple is as sacred to us as your mosque is to you.”
