The BJP government in Haryana has bulldozed 250 shanties of “illegal” immigrants from Bangladesh in the minority-dominated Nuh district, a majority of whom have been named as accused in the recent communal violence, police said on Friday.

Nuh deputy commissioner Prashant Panwar, however, denied that the demolition was linked to the violence and said it was part of a normal process of clearing encroachments.

Chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar and the police have accused migrant workers of being involved in the violence.

“These 250 shanties came up as illegal encroachments four years ago and were inhabited by illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. These people were earlier living in Assam before they settled here and set up shanties on Haryana Urban Authority land,” said a police officer on Friday.

He declined comment when asked why the authorities had allowed encroachments four years back.

Several homes and shops of Muslim migrants were set on fire and vandalised by a mob on Tuesday and they were threatened with violence unless they moved out of the area. Many of them have already fled, fearing attacks.

The violence had broken out after members of the Bajrang Dal and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad took out a procession in a sensitive area in Nuh town around 1.30pm on Monday, shouting abusive slogans, the police said. The procession was stopped by a group of young men and soon after, stone pelting started from both sides, a police officer said.

Several videos on social media purport to show men armed with guns and swords taking part in the procession and shouting religious slurs.

A video clip uploaded by fact-checker Mohammed Zubair on Thursday showed a man opening fire from what has been described as theNalhar Shiv Temple in Haryana on Monday and policepersonnel looking on. Some other youths are also seen carrying arms in the video that shows at least one armed policeman.