Image: PTI
Fresh violence was reported from Jahangirpuri on Monday. According to multiple news reports, another “incident of stone-pelting was reported from the area”. According to a report in India Today, after a woman was taken for interrogation in connection with Saturday’s clash, around 50 women in the area began protesting and allegedly threw stones in Delhi’s Jahangirpuri on Monday.
“The woman detained by the police on Monday is the wife of accused Sonu, who allegedly opened fire during the clash on Saturday. After she was taken for police interrogation, stones were pelted from the rooftops of different homes on Monday,” reported IT, adding that one person has been detained. According to this report, the Deputy Commissioner of Police North-West Delhi Usha Rangrani, said that the “family members of Sonu, who is absconding at present, pelted two stones at the police when they went to his house in search of him.” Now, police and Rapid Action Force (RAF) have reportedly cordoned off the area.
According to a report in Indian Express, Rangrani said, “A video was being circulated on Sunday on social media showing a man (in blue kurta) opening fire during the riot in the Jahangirpuri area on April 16. A Police team from the northwest district had gone to his house in CD Park Road to look for him and to question his family members. The family members pelted two stones on them in retaliation. Legal action is being taken. One person has been detained and the situation is completely under control now.”
Fact finding team of the Left parties report talks of police inaction
Soon after clashes broke out during a Hanuman Jayanti procession on Saturday, a fact finding team of the Left parties [CPI (M), CPI, CPI (ML), and Forward Block] visited the affected areas of Jahangirpuri-C block on April 17. The delegation met with members of both Hindu and Muslim communities, in around 50 households. They also met the Additional DCP Kishen Kumar at the Jahangirpuri police station. According to the fact finding report released to the media on Monday, there were three processions taken out in the area on April 16, to celebrate Hanuman Jayanti. Since afternoon that day “a group of 150 to 200 people armed with weapons in their hands and loud DJ music were roaming in processions” stated the fact finding report, adding that the men in these processions were reportedly “raising slogans in the streets of Jahangirpuri”.
According to the team, “Bystanders said they saw pistols and swords being waved by the processionists which is confirmed by videos shown on various TV channels. Loud and aggressive slogans were being given. The team was informed that this was not a procession organised by local people, but was organised by the youth wing of the Bajrang Dal with most from outside the area.” They were also told that “the procession was accompanied by two police jeeps” however “each jeep had only two personnel”.
“Why did the police not make adequate arrangements? Why did the police allow open arms to be carried in the procession?” asked the fact finding team. These processions reportedly made two rounds of Block C Jahangirpuri where most residents are Bengali speaking Muslims. Nothing untoward happened in those two rounds of the Hanuman Jayanti procession, it was in the third round that violence broke out. The fact finders questioned the theory of an alleged “conspiracy” by the local Muslim residents to attack the procession and stated that if this was the case “the attacks would have taken place earlier.”
“The fact is that the incidents occurred when the procession stopped outside a mosque at the exact time when those who were keeping roza were gathering at the mosque for the prayer,” stated the report. “Why was the procession allowed to stop there? Why were slogans allowed just outside the mosque? In other words an armed procession is given licence to stop outside the mosque shouting slogans at the exact time when roza is to end and when a crowd of Muslims had gathered. If these incidents are to be described as a conspiracy—it is this which is the conspiracy in which the police itself has a responsibility,” it added.
The team was also told that “there was stone-pelting which started from both sides” and that “there was a fear among the residents near that area that the processionists would enter the mosque and that the police were not taking any action.” The fact finding team also saw remains of arson such as some cars and motorbikes which had been burnt. A shop belonging to a Hindu was looted” and “was informed that the police who came to the spot were caught in the cross stone pelting and some suffered injuries.”
According to the team, locals have alleged that “police conducted raids in the area making indiscriminate arrests” at night on April 16, and “when women tried to find out from the police why their homes were being raided, male police punched them in the stomach and beat them.”
The team that went to the police station also saw Delhi BJP President Adesh Gupta, Hansraj Hans MP “addressing a press conference inside the police station premises in the presence of police officials. Around them were people shouting Jai Shri Ram slogans.” They ask, “Does this not clearly show the partiality of the police? The team found that in the entire area, there was no confidence in the police and that it was a completely one-sided, prejudiced inquiry influenced by BJP leaders.”
The Left parties have appealed to the citizens to stand up for unity and “not to let the plans of the RSS-BJP succeed in any way. They have opted to divert popular attention from the economic impasse faced by the country and the livelihood crisis of the people by spreading communal discord.” They have asked that the Home Ministry and the President “immediately intervene to reverse the partiality of the Delhi Police” and that “The Lieutenant Governor of Delhi should immediately intervene, breaking his silence.”
The fact finding report may be read here:
The CPI (M) Delhi has also called for a protest against those “instigating communal violence and spoiling mutual brotherhood”. The protest will be held on April
19, at 11 A.M at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi.
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