publive-image

Post Kapil Mishra's speech the Pro-CAA crowd had started to disperse as they had given an ultimatum to the Police and the government for 'ending' the protest. But before the complete dispersal, they were subject to stone pelting at Maujpur Chowk from the Muslim mob's end which lead to the clashes between the two groups.

By the night at about 9, the clashes had taken a rather violent turn, when people from almost every household of the densely populated Muslim localities took to the streets.

To differentiate between Hindu and Muslim owners of the shops, the Muslim owners already painted their shutters with "No CAA,NRC, NPR" which made it easy to identify which shop to burn and which not to.

There where over 700 calls made to the police that night most of them from the Hindus which were majorly concentrated from the Jaffrabad, ChandBagh localities that have over 80% Muslim population. That night, the police dispersed the crowd with the help of baton charge and tear gas as a result, the major loss was only of property and vehicles that were torched.

The next morning, on the 24th February at around 12:30, a mob carrying swords, weapons, and petrol bombs attacked the police party which was when the brave Delhi Police's Head Constable Ratan Lal was killed.

“Lots of rioters from Muslim community took their position on the roof of Rajdhani School and threw petrol bombs and stones on the persons and properties of other party from a specially affixed iron catapult,” reads the chargesheet.

Anil Sweets Corner, situated opposite the school, became the first casualty as rioting started in the afternoon of 24 February. A completely charred body of one employee, Dilber Negi, was recovered later in the night from the burnt premises.

Muslim rioters targeted other Hindu establishments at the Tiraha which included DRP Convent School and two parking lots at around 3 PM. Before that, at 1 PM, one Hindu man sustained gunshot injury.

Delhi Police arrested Rajdhani school owner Faisal Farooq on 10 March and he is presently in judicial custody. Farooq is accused of hatching a conspiracy to precipitate riots by burning Hindu properties adjacent to his school.

At the Tiraha, one Salman was killed by gunshot wound at 5 PM.

The first three incidents on 24 February have Hindus as victims while one has a Muslim victim. On the 25th, out of six incidents, two involve Muslims as victims, three Hindus were assaulted and one is on acid attack on SSB Jawans.

The major incidents in Shiv Vihar occurred around Tiraha but as a planned attack, almost each and every CCTV of that area had been damaged which points out to a long term planning.

As a matter of fact, despite the 1/3rd of Hindus being killed out of the total 53 casualties, most of the accused arrested are Muslims and almost all of them have accepted their involvement in the riots in some or the other way. The number of casualties on 24th night had more Hindus but by 26th morning, the numbers changed.