Gujarat: Mosques, shrines, homes bulldozed in demolition drive near Somnath temple

The authorities in Gujarat’s Gir Somnath district on Saturday demolished nine mosques and shrines, and 45 homes in the Prabhas Patan area near the Somnath temple for alleged land encroachment, the Hindustan Times reported.

The demolition drive started in the early hours of Saturday and continued for more than six hours, District Collector DD Jadeja told The Indian Express. “Encroachment from 15 hectares of land, which is worth Rs 60 crore, has been removed,” Jadeja said.

An allegedly illegal lodge with 40 rooms was also demolished during the drive, the Hindustan Times quoted DD Jadeja as saying.

Hundreds of police personnel were deployed in the Somnath and Veraval towns as a precautionary measure, Superintendent of Police Manoharsinh Jadeja told The Indian Express.

The police used mild force to maintain law and order in one location during the demolition drive amid resistance from the residents, but there was no major incident, Manoharsinh Jadeja said.

A hundred and fifty persons were detained to maintain law and order, the police official told ANI.

The district collector said that a part of the land where the structures were demolished belonged to the Shree Somnath Trust, which manages the Somnath temple. The encroachments were removed following several court rulings against the encroachment.

“The government had allotted some plots of land to Somnath Trust in the 1950s on a lease for 99 years,” The Indian Express quoted...

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