Write Comment     |     E-Mail To a Friend     |     Facebook     |     Twitter     |     Print

 People were killed and injured, shops gutted and vehicles torchedas mobs took to the streets, escalating the tensions over the Citizenship Amendment Act.

After days of violent protests in which at least 38 were killed and around 200 injured, northeast Delhi witnessed relative calm on Friday. Shops were gutted, vehicles torched and families displaced as mobs took to the streets, escalating the tensions over the Citizenship Amendment Act.

Delhi police, who was criticised for ineffective de-escalation efforts, issued an appeal on Thursday, requesting people, including media persons, to come forward and give their statements and share video footage in connection with the violence. Documented here is how the situation in Delhi deteriorated on February 25, 26 and 27.

Residents offer tea to security personnel in Maujpur, northeast Delhi on Friday.   | Photo Credit: Sandeep Saxena

Here are the latest updates:
11.20 am
S.N. Shrivastava to be next Delhi police commissioner

Senior IPS officer S N Shrivastava will be the next Delhi police commissioner, officials said on Friday.Incumbent Amulya Patnaik demits office on Saturday.

11.20 am
39 dead

The GTB Hospital reported one death on Friday, taking the toll in the northeast Delhi violence to 39. As many as 25 people were brought dead to the hospital in the last week, while 10 succumbed to injuries while undergoing treatment.

Lok Nayak Hospital has reported three deaths so far, while Jag Prakash hospital has reported one death.

11.00 am
Strict vigil in violence-hit areas of northeast Delhi

Police and paramilitary personnel maintaining strict vigil in northeast Delhi in view of Friday prayers at mosques.

regular flag marches and interactions in the neighbourhoods of affected areas as confidence-building measures.

In some areas of northeast Delhi, signs of normal life were witnessed with opening of shops. In violence-hit areas also, shops in streets and bylanes were open.

Nearly 7,000 paramilitary forces have been deployed in the affected areas of the northeast district since Monday. Besides, hundreds of Delhi police personnel are on the ground to maintain peace and prevent any untoward incident.

10.30 am
National Commission for Women team to visit Jaffrabad

A team of the National Commission for Women, including chairperson Rekha Sharma, will visit Jaffrabad on Friday to look into any cases of assault on women during the recent communal violence in northeast Delhi, according to a member.

A member of the NCW said Sharma and two members will visit Jaffrabad to look into any grievance or assault on women during the violence in past four days.

- PTI
 
International criticism ‘misleading and inaccurate’, says India

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) condemned widespread international criticism of the Delhi violence as “misleading and inaccurate” and urged various leaders in the U.S., media, and international organisations not to make “irresponsible comments at a sensitive time” for India.

On February 27, the government faced statements from the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), several Democrat and Republican leaders in addition to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on the communal violence since February 24 that has left at least 38 people dead.

The Delhi police were missing, Hindus and Muslims agree

Some shops are still slowly smoking, in others people could be seen examining what is salvageable. Charred vehicles litter the road at the crossing of Mustafabad-Shiv Vihar in north-east Delhi. Even once mighty steel almirahs dot the patchy road.

At major crossings in Jaffrabad, Ganga Vihar, Shiv Vihar and Gokulpuri, police pickets can be seen. In Gokulpuri, most shops are open while in Mustafabad where many shops and a school were gutted, it’s not business as usual.

Delhi police and Rapid Action Force personnel are deployed in many areas, with local residents making arrangements to feed them. People with metal buckets and paper plates were going around, feeding policemen.

Hindu teen recounts how Muslim neighbours stood guard for him

Seventeen-year-old Harsh Singh was home alone on Monday afternoon when clashes broke out a few metres away from his residence in north-east Delhi’s Khajoori Khas. His “Wahab bhai” and another neighbour pushed him inside the house to make sure he was safe.

Harsh Singh at his residence in north-east Delhi’s Khajoori Khas on Thursday.   | Photo Credit: Sandeep Saxena

Hearing the commotion on the street outside on Monday, Harsh, a Class X student, ran out of the house. Stickers reading “Om Namah Shivay” and “Ram Ram” had been pasted on their door. “I was standing outside when I found people pelting stones at each other. Bhabhi and Wahab bhai came and asked me to go inside and also said that I should inform them in case I face a problem,” he said, referring to his neighbours, who belong to the Muslim community. The woman was not found at her residence when The Hindu visited it.
4-year-old, who was presumed dead, survives bullet injury

Presumed dead after being hit by a bullet on the back near his spine and brought to the hospital over two hours later, 14-year-old Faizan is now stable and is recovering at ward number 11 of GTB Hospital here on Thursday.

“The boy had allegedly come out of his house to get breakfast on Tuesday morning when he got caught in the mob and fell on the ground. He later got up and was hit on the back. We found him on the roadside,” said a journalist, who along with locals in the area managed to get the boy admitted in the hospital.
How will I explain to the students, asks teacher of torched school

Arun Modern Senior Secondary School and a madrasa, located in Farooqi Mosque on the same street in Brijpuri area, were vandalised and torched by mobs on Tuesday.

“Your home: Your Sweet Home; School: Your Second Home” reads the charred remnants of a textbook in the library of the burnt school where around 1,000 students are enrolled.

“I don’t know why they targeted the school. The signs of violence are present in every corner of the institute. They burnt down the computer laboratory, library, classrooms, toilets, school bus. Records of all students have been gutted,” said a teacher, who wished not to be named.