Amjad Khan stands despairingly before a wreckage that had been his livelihood for a decade. His modest bakery in Khargone, a town 120-km south of Indore city in Madhya Pradesh, was one of the 45 buildings reduced to rubble in a widespread demolition drive in April 2022. Many of these took place with little notice, even for those who had occupied the land.
The purpose, Amjad says, was ‘collective punishment’ targeting Muslim neighbourhoods after stone-pelting during a Ram Navami procession the previous day. But Amjad knew immediately that something was amiss. “I filed RTIs with the city municipality and the district collector to find out who ordered the demolition. Both responded saying they had not initiated any action against me,” says Amjad, holding up the RTI responses.
