An Aerial view shows Gyanvapi mosque, left, and Kashiviswanath temple on the banks of the river Ganges in Varanasi, India on Dec. 12, 2021. AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh ...

KOLKATA, India (RNS) — Last Eid, 49-year-old Partha Sarathi Basu added a fresh coat of paint to the Amanati Mosque in the Barasat district of Bengal, 15 miles north of Kolkata in eastern India.

Varanasi, an ancient city of temples and gods, is India’s spiritual capital. And here, in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s political stronghold, tensions between Hindus and Muslims are escalating.

Item 1 of 2 A view of a site that was allotted by authorities for a new mosque, about 15 miles from the Hindu Ram Temple, in Ayodhya in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India, November 23, 2023.

“There are 16 mosques which have been targeted,” said Mufti Abdul Momin, who heads a faction of Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind, an influential pan-India Muslim organisation, in Tripura.

NEW DELHI, India — A bomb exploded outside one of India’s largest and most sacred mosques Friday, killing at least 11 people and seriously injuring 55, officials said. The explosion at the ...

An Aerial view shows Gyanvapi mosque, left, and Kashiviswanath temple on the banks of the river Ganges in Varanasi, India, Dec. 12, 2021. A group of Hindus petitioned a local court seeking access ...

NEW DELHI (AP) — For nearly three centuries, Muslims and Hindus in India’s northern Varanasi city have prayed to their gods in a mosque and a temple that are separated by one wall. Many see it ...