What actually happened in North East Delhi Violence ?
Pic. Courtesy : ANI (Chand Bagh area in violence-hit North East Delhi)
In one word this is a true story of politics, police failures and riot-ready mob.
The violence in North East Delhi, which began on 23 February 2020, continued for 72 hours. People from all over India witnessed: religiously bloodshed, destruction of property and many incidents of riots including failure of administration. The death toll in the Delhi violence has risen to 53 (51 identified : 35 Muslims, 15 Hindus, 1 Unknown) and Injuries : More than 200.
Almost 37 police personnel injured in violence in North East Delhi. But the Delhi Police registered 690 cases with nearly 2,200 held for Delhi riots; violence victims find shelter at relief camps in the capital.
Why cops failed to control Delhi violence ? And Why is it in such a bad condition even after Delhi Police has been described as model police for all states ?
There can be many reasons for this, but there is something that no one can deny.
1. Law and order has failed to handle the situation
2. Top brass inexperience in dealing with violent skirmishes
3. Lack of confidence in leadership
4. And the department’s repeated failure to assess situations.
Citizenship Amendment Act protests
Protests began across India in December 2019 in response to the passage of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), which allows fast-tracked naturalisation for immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh & Afghanistan belonging to six religions vis-à-vis Hinduism, Sikhism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Jainism and Buddhism. Opposition said The Act has been seen as discriminatory to Muslims and threatening to their existence in India when combined with the anticipated National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Several anti-CAA protests were held in New Delhi. Some protesters burned vehicles and pelted stones at Security forces. In Shaheen Bagh, protesters blocked roads, which led to a traffic jam.
Background Story :
The Delhi Legislative Assembly was elected on 8 February 2020, in which the Bharatiya Janata Party was defeated by the Aam Aadmi Party. In this election the fire slogans were widely used by the BJP, anti-national elements and anti-CAA protesters were equalized and provoked to shoot. Delhi BJP chief, Manoj Tiwari, has attributed the indecent speeches by fellow party-candidates to the BJP’s defeat.
Anti-CAA Protesters Block Seelampur-Jaffrabad Road, Cops Deployed :
February 22 (10 :00 - 10:30 pm) : A section of protesters staged a sit-in protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act in Seelampur in North-East Delhi and blocked the Seelampur-Jafrabad main road.
February 23 (8:18 am): In response to the overnight protests, the entry and exit gates of the Zafarabad Metro station were closed on Sunday. The DMRC said that there would be no stoppage of trains at the station.
February 23 (9 am): According to India Today….Senior officers ask protesters to vacate the area as it disrupted traffic in the area. No permission to march to Raj Ghat, Delhi Police tells protesters.
23 February and incitement :
February 23 (12 pm): On social media, Kapil Mishra gives a call to his supporters to gather in large numbers at Mauj Pur Chowk at 3 pm to give an answer to the blockade at Jaffrabad.
February 23 (1 pm) :
There was heavy police deployment in the area and protesters are still gathered in front of Jaffrabad metro station. There was no violence at the time, which would follow widespread violence.
February 23 (3.30 - 4 pm):
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Kapil Mishra and his supporters reached a protest site at Mouzpur Chowk to respond to "Zafarabad [blockade]". BJP politician Kapil Mishra, who had been temporarily banned from campaigning during the elections because of religiously divisive comments, gave an ultimatum to the Delhi Police to clear the road.
CLASHES Between ANTI-CAA and PRO-CAA :
February 23 (3:45 - 4 pm): Protesters from Babarpur (shamshan wali gali) hurl stones at on others who were gathering at Maujpur Chowk and near a temple.
February 23 (4-5 pm): Clashes breaks out in Maujpur, Karawal Nagar, Maujpur Chowk, Babarpur and Chand Bagh. Police resort to lathicharge and fire tear gas shells. Paramilitary forces roped in.
February 23 (6 pm): At a chowk underneath the highway in North East Delhi’s Khajuri Khas, a mob shouting ‘Jai Shri Ram’ set buildings on fire on Tuesday afternoon, including a biryani shop. There was fire on either side of the highway. Directly under the budge was a biryani shop, and Hindutva groups could be heard actively pointing it out and saying that it must be burnt because it sold biryani. Right across the biryani shop is an Agarwal Sweets – and that was left untouched. Muslim residents in this area are reportedly in hiding, facing the violence.
February 23 (7:00 - 8:30 pm) : Brief period of calm before clashes break out again.
23 February (9-11 pm): Both sides clashes again in Karawal Nagar, Chand Bagh, Babarpur and Maujpur. Cars and vehicles vandalized, shops destroyed.
February 24 : Protests continue at Jaffarabad.
February 24 (10 -11 am): Pro-CAA groups came close to anti-CAA protesters and kept shouting slogans. Refused to move out till those sitting at Jaffarabad leave. Police constable Ratan Lal has died.
February 24 (12 - 1: 30 pm): Stone pelting at Babarpur. In Bhajanpura, in afternoon a group numbering around 2000 attacked a petrol pump, chanting slogans of Āzādī (transl. 'Freedom’) and carrying petrol bombs, sticks and weapons. They attacked the owner and employees of the petrol pump with sticks, burning vehicles and petrol tanks after looting available cash.
February 24 (At around 12:30 p.m.) : Protesters clashed with police while wearing masks and waving swords. Paramilitary force was called. Clashes were also reported at Karawal Nagar, Sherpur Chowk, and Gokulpuri. The police continued to use tear gas shells and lathicharge.
February 24 (12:30-1 pm): Heavy stone-pelting in Kardampuri.
February 24 (2:30 -3:30 pm): Buses, vehicles set on fire, houses vandalised. Ratan Lal, a head constable attached to the office of ACP Gokalpuri, was already killed. Several police personnel, including Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Shahdara, Amit Sharma, and ACP (Gokalpuri) Anuj Kumar were injured while trying to quell the protests. 2 CRPF police personnel were also injured while trying to stop the protests.
February 24 (3:50 pm): Violence was also reported from the areas of Seelampur, Jaffrabad, Maujpur, Kardampuri, Babarpur, Gokulpuri and Shivpuri.
February 24 (4:20 pm) : Section 144 of the CrPC has been imposed at ten locations in North-east district of Delhi on Monday after a clash broke out between two groups in Maujpur area, the Delhi Police said.
February 24 (6 pm): Amidst the gunfire and arson, Muslims start running into the neighborhood. A Muslim-owned shop set on fire with the screaming of "Jai Shri Ram" being heard.
February 24 (7:30 to 8:30 pm): An incident of fire has been reported near a school building in Gokalpuri. The incident took place at the Tyre Market area(predominantly owned by Muslims).
February 24 (10 pm): Rioting on at Ghonda Chowk and Maujpur Chowk.
February 24 (around 10:30 p.m) : A mob beat Monu Kumar and his father Vinod Kumar with sticks, stones and swords while screaming "Allahu akbar". Vinod Kumar died on the spot.
On that day, five people died including a police constable and four civilians.
Three thousand five hundred emergency calls were made to the police control room that day. The Delhi Fire Service stated that it had attended 45 calls from areas in northeast Delhi and three firemen were injured, on 24 February.
25th February : Stone pelting was reported from Maujpur, Brahampuri and other neighbouring areas. Around 5 a.m. in Brahmpuri, Atul Kumar was shot during a morning walk. Rapid Action Force were deployed in the worst affected areas. It was a full-blown riot with intense religious sloganeering and violence from both sides.
February 25 (around 11 a.m.) : Mohammed Saeed Salmani was out buying milk for his family, he received a call from his younger son. An armed mob of around 100 people had entered their lane in Gamri extension, around 1.5 km from Khajuri Khas in Delhi, and were setting shops and houses on fire. Their four-storey house, too, had been torched, and his family had sought refuge on the roof.
While most of his family survived the arson, Salmani’s mother, 85-year-old Akbari, died in the fire on the third floor of their house. The building itself was burnt, including the family’s tailoring workshops on the first two floors. Salmani claims that the mobs also looted him of Rs 8 lakh and all the family jewellery stored in the building.
February 25 (2:04 PM) : Rioters damaged two fire tenders in Gokulpuri in northeast Delhi, fire officials said on Tuesday as violence continued unabated in the area, PTI reported.
An angry mob raising incendiary slogans also set on fire a bike in Maujpur, the epicentre of the clashes over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in which seven people were killed and about 150 injured on Monday.
February 25, (2:11 PM) : An NGO on Tuesday approached the Delhi High Court seeking registration of an FIR and arrest of persons involved in ongoing violence in North East Delhi over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, reports PTI.
The petition, which is likely to be mentioned before the high court, also seeks setting up of an SIT to inquire into the incident and compensation for those killed and injured in the violence.
It has also sought directions to the Centre for deployment of the Army to maintain law and order in the national capital and areas where the "communal attack on people are most ferocious".
February 25, (2:37 PM) : Stone pelting started once again between two groups near Bhajanpura chowk in northeast Delhi on Tuesday, ANI reported.
Meanwhile, mobs began stone-pelting in Delhi’s Vijay Park-Yamuna Vihar area and even inside a mosque in Ashok Nagar.
February 25, (3 p.m.) : On same day in Durgapuri, Hindu and Muslim mobs clashed, pelting stones and shooting at each other. The rioters sported tilaka on their foreheads, and shouted religious slogans whilst shops and vehicles belonging to Muslims were exclusively torched. Police were not present initially in the area and arrived almost an hour later.
Photo Credit : The Wire
February 25 (before 3:57 pm): A mosque in Ashok Nagar was set on fire late on Tuesday afternoon. A mob shouting “Jai Shri Ram” and “Hinduon ka Hindustan” paraded around the burning mosque, Badi Masjid, and a Hanuman flag was placed on the minaret of the masjid. It was also reported that prayer mats of the mosque were burnt and torn pages from the Quran were strewn outside the mosque.
Photo Credit : Indian Express
After the first wave of violence by rioters, the police evacuated Muslim residents and took them to the police station. While the residents were away, a second mosque in Ashok Nagar and a third in Brijpuri were also torched along with a three-storey house and eight shops in the vicinity. Another mosque was vandalised in Gokulpuri.
Photo Credit : Indian Express
February 25 (5 to 6 pm): Arun Modern Senior Secondary School, the 30-year-old school in the northeast Delhi neighbourhood of Brijpuri, which was vandalised and gutted on Tuesday evening by a mob. “It all happened in front of my eyes and I couldn’t do anything,” says Shadab, who owns a shoe shop adjacent to the school. According to Shadab, around fifty men armed with lathis and swords barged into the school between 5 and 6 pm in the evening. “I don’t know who they were. They certainly weren’t locals. They came and plundered and broke everything. I don’t know what they used to light fire, but before I knew it, the whole place was burning,” says Shadab.
February 25, (9:30 pm): It was reported that 13 people died due to violence. Among the injured, more than 70 people suffered gunshot injuries.
February 25, (10 pm): Shoot at sight orders were given to police in the riot-affected area.
February 26 : The dead body of Ankit Sharma, a trainee driver in the Intelligence Bureau at Chanakyapuri, was found in a drain in Jaffrabad, a day after he went missing. The circumstances leading to his death are under investigation. According to a post-mortem report, he was repeatedly stabbed, leading to his death. Tahir Hussain, who was an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillor, was arrested for allegedly murdering Sharma.
7,400 emergency calls were made to the police control room throughout the day, the highest in the week.
The National Security Advisor of India, Shri Ajit Doval, visited violence-affected areas of North East Delhi in the evening. However, reports of violence, arson and mob lynching emerged from Karawal Nagar, Maujpur and Bhajanpura later that night. One thousand, five hundred emergency calls were made to the police control room that day. Complaints of delayed post-mortem reports were aired from several hospitals while witnesses and affected individuals who claimed to be civilians gave statements. Some of them blamed Kapil Mishra for the riots while one individual stated that a mob attacked them with stones and swords while chanting the Takbir.
27 February (between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m) : In Shiv Vihar, clashes were reported. Three injured persons were reported, one of whom had bullet wounds. A godown, two shops, and a motorcycle were torched.
28 February : A 60-year-old rag picker, who had stepped out of home assuming the situation had normalized, was attacked and died on way to the hospital due to head injuries.
29 February : With no fresh cases of violence reported to the police on the day, the situation was said to be returning to normal with some shops reopening. 13 cases were registered against people posting provocative content on social media.
High Court hearing
A petition was filed in the Delhi High Court seeking the police report and the arrest of those involved in the violence. It was to be received for immediate hearing on 25 February. However, the court said that the petition would be heard on 26 February. The petition filed by activists Harsh Mander and Farah Naqvi has also asked for a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the incident, besides compensation for the killed and injured.
Court hearing on 26 February
At midnight on 26 February, a court bench of Justice Muralidhar and Talwant Singh heard a petition to provide safe passage for the riot victims to reach their nearest government or private hospitals. Subsequently, the court ordered the police to provide security and help to all the victims to reach their nearby hospitals. The bench also directed the police to submit a compliance report, which would include information about the injured victims and the treatment given to them. To be placed before the court for the following hearing date.
During the morning of the hearing, the court asked the crime branch’s DCP, Rajesh Deo, and the Solicitor General of India, Tushar Mehta, had they seen the inflammatory speech given by Kapil Mishra? In response, DCP Deo shocked the court by saying that he did not watch the video of Mishra, but rather the videos of Anurag Thakur and Parvesh Verma. The court then played a video clip of Kapil Mishra’s speech instructing police to file cases related to indecent speech made by four BJP leaders, Kapil Mishra, Anurag Thakur, Parvesh Verma and Abhay Verma. Instructions were given. The bench had expressed "anguish" over the Delhi Police’s inability to control the riots and its failure to register an FIR against BJP leaders for their hate speeches. It was noted that Delhi cannot be allowed to repeat incidents like the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
