Kalyan: A group of local Hindu villagers blocked police and civic authorities from pulling down a mosque in western India.
The incident occurred at Kona, a village close to Kalyan, some 50 km northeast of Mumbai, capital of Maharashtra state.
The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority had earlier warned that it would demolish the 2003 church alleging that it was built on encroached land.
On April 18, when the officials came with some 500 police men, the villagers, predominantly Hindu, blocked them. The villagers threatened to destroy all Hindu temples in the area if the authorities went ahead with their plan, reports dailyhunt.in.
The villagers maintained that the mosque was built on a plot given by the local panchayat, the village council. The council had also given permission to build the mosque.
As the situation became worse, the police and the officials had to leave the place without touching the church, the report continued.