In a mostly Muslim town in Yunnan, China, protesters and a significant number of police have engaged in physical altercations over the proposed removal of a mosque’s dome.

Videos posted to social media on Saturday showed throngs outside Nagu town’s 13th-century Najiaying Mosque. Locals were surrounded by hundreds of armed police officers when fights between them and the police broke out. The province of Yunnan in southern China, which has a mixed ethnic population, has a sizable Muslim community.

Also read: First hand-stitched Holy Qur’an produced by a Pakistani woman in 32 years

The Chinese government claims to respect religious freedom despite the country’s avowed atheism. Nevertheless, experts claim that there has been a stepped-up assault on organized religion in recent years as Beijing attempts to exert more control. The Najiaying Mosque, a prominent landmark in Nagu, was recently extended with a new domed roof and a variety of other improvements. A 2020 court decision, however, declared the modifications to be unlawful and ordered them removal. The demonstrations appear to have been spurred by recent efforts to carry out that directive.