India, June 17 -- A special task force backed by heavy police deployment on Monday demolished hundreds of units in the Ashok Vihar slum cluster in north Delhi, in a massive demolition operation targeting over 200 structures.

The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) said the operation focused only on jhuggis whose residents had already been allotted flats under the in-situ Jailorwala Bagh rehabilitation project and excluded those protected by court orders.

Bulldozers and personnel from multiple agencies descended on the area early in the morning. Access roads were barricaded as machines began tearing down slum units. DDA, in a statement, clarified that 1,078 eligible families have already been resettled in 1BHK flats built on the same site ...