Hundreds of Muslims in India are protesting the planned partial demolition of the centuries-old Shahi Mosque to create more footpath for the 2028 Hindu pilgrimage expected to attract a mammoth crowd.

The BJP-led state government has deemed the demolition necessary to expand the road to accommodate Hindu pilgrims expected to use the route next year. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a practising Hindu.

The demonstrating Muslims camped inside and outside the mosque in Ujjain city to express their grievance while bulldozers, readying for demolition, remained stationed in front of the mosque.

Demonstrators told local media, Maktoob, that it was wrong to wipe out the existence of a religion to favour another.

“They cannot keep demolishing mosques only because they are in the way of something. This is baseless and makes no sense that to establish one religion, you would completely demolish and erase the existence of other religions,” prominent cleric Mufti Junaid was quoted as saying.

The Madhya Pradesh High Court has already dismissed petitions challenging the demolition, but a third petition filed by the mosque was scheduled for hearing on Monday.