'A saffron flag inscribed with “Jai Shri Ram” now flies atop one of the minarets of a mosque in northeast Delhi’s Gokalpuri neighbourhood. The mosque was gutted from inside, its walls sooty but still standing.
'A municipal corporator has become the face of the Delhi riots. More than 36 hours have passed since the name of the Aam Aadmi Party’s Nehru Vihar councillor, Tahir Hussain, surfaced in news headlines for allegedly orchestrating the violence in the Khajuri Khas-Chand Bagh area. The communal violence in Delhi has left at least 42 people dead and over 200 injured. The dead include Ankit Sharma, a resident of Khajuri Khas who worked for the Intelligence Bureau. Ankit went missing on February 24. His body was retrieved the next day from a drain not far from Tahir’s house.
'“Our children’s admit cards had not even been sent,” said a tearful Neetu Chaudhary, as she surveyed the charred remains of Arun Modern Public Senior Secondary School. “They have destroyed all records from 1986.” The school was established in 1986. It is located in Brijpuri, at the entrance to Mustafabad, a locality in North East Delhi which saw widespread violence and arson on February 25. According to Kasim Zaid, the school’s physical education teacher, it was set alight around 4-5 pm in the evening of February 25...'
'The proceedings in the riots case in Delhi High Court offer a rich study on how the composition of bench can influence the result of a case, and can even produce diametrically different approaches. The petition filed by activist Harsh Mander seeking independent probe into Delhi riots and also registration of FIR on allegations of hate speeches by politicians was heard by a bench comprising Justices Dr S Muralidhar and Talwant Singh yesterday. Today, the case was considered by another bench comprising Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar.
'A journalist with a Hindi news portal alleged on Wednesday that he was assaulted while filming in a riot-hit area and forced to drop his pants to check if he was circumcised. Susheel Manav, a journalist with Jan Chowk, said he was riding pillion on a motorcycle driven by theatre person Awadhu Azad at Lane 7 of northeast Delhi’s Maujpur when they were stopped. Lane 7 was where a head constable was killed by rioters on Monday...'
'The violence in Delhi has largely been concentrated in areas that the BJP managed to win in the recent Assembly elections on the back of a vicious and polarising campaign led by Union home minister Amit Shah. Five of the eight seats the BJP won in the 70-member Assembly fall in northeast Delhi where rioting took place. The Delhi Northeast seat is represented in the Lok Sabha by the BJP’s state president, Manoj Tiwari...'
'The Mustafabad area in north east Delhi also saw violence on Tuesday evening as a Hindutva mob attacked the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protest site, injuring several people including children. According to residents, a mob of around 50 men gathered in the area and began to pelt stones. At least two mosques in the area have been vandalised and attacked with stones, by the same mob. Residents told The Wire that men armed with rods and pistols gathered outside the mosques in the area and attacked them. At the time, several children were inside the mosque and were attacked.
'The plea was for directions to ensure safe passage of seriously wounded victims from Al Hind Hospital in Mustafabad, a small hospital lacking facilities, to GTB Hospital in Dilshad Garden. Advocate Suroor Mander explained the dire circumstances of victims trapped in Al Hind Hospital to Justice Muralidhar over phone. Advocate Suroor also arranged for the phone conversation between Dr Anwar at Al Hind Hospital with the bench via speaker mode.
'...Amid this, a group of around 50 people surrounded me and the clamour to check my phone grew because they were convinced I had clicked photos of the violence. They thumbed through my recent pictures and found no photo or video of the unrest. But they were not taken in and deleted all my photos and videos before returning the phone to me. “Why have you come here?” “Are you from JNU?”. These questions were asked before the group asked me to leave if I cared for my life.This was a precursor to what I was about to encounter...'
'...“They beat me till they broke me. I begged them and they beat me some more, viciously. They made communally charged slurs and took (BJP leader) Kapil Mishra’s name. I don’t remember much. I just hoped my children were safe. I can’t bear to look at my photograph, my legs shiver with pain,” Zubair told The Indian Express. Zubair had left his house on Monday morning to attend a local dua ka namaaz and was caught by protesters who, as per eyewitnesses, kept assaulting him with wooden sticks and iron rods till he lost consciousness.
