Kanpur (UP), Jul 19 (IANS): In a bizarre development, Kanpur Mayor Pramila Pandey has demanded a law that bars Muslims from buying properties owned by Hindus and vice versa.

"I do not have a problem with Muslims per se, but it is their mentality they have about temples in their area that is the problem," she said.

Pandey had visited Munshipurwa, a Muslim dominated locality in Kanpur on Tuesday, on a complaint that Muslims were gradually encroaching a Hanuman temple there.

"In my previous term as mayor, 125 temples illegally occupied by Muslims were identified and I will ensure that such illegal occupation is removed," she said.

She said garbage was being thrown around the Munshipurwa temple apparently to gradually encroach on the area.

The property around the temple was owned by one Shiv Murat who sold it to its present owner Mohd Akhlaq, some 20 years back on the condition that no windows or doors would open towards the temple.

It may be recalled that Pandey had launched a campaign to identify Hindu temples in the Muslim dominated localities in 2022 but the campaign had to be called off following violence on June 3, 2022.