Walking from Jafrabad metro Station towards Maujpur-Babarpur station, I could never imagine that the second day of the protests would be as ugly as what unfolded in front of my eyes.
As I stood a few metres ahead of Maujpur-Babarpur station, I could hear rounds being fired one after the other. My first instinct was that it was a gun going off, but after seeing a white plume of smoke I realised that police were firing tear gas shells.?
Minutes later, I saw two men running carrying an injured policeman on their shoulder. The cop was rushed away in a police Gypsy.
Some youths were putting tilak on the forehead of passersby and when they approached me, I politely refused. The loudspeakers at Maujpur Chowk were constantly blaring ¡°Jai Shri Ram¡±.
I soon saw anti-CAA protesters on one side of the road near Kabir Nagar and pro-CAA agitators on the other side. The small bridge over the drain was the only saving grace as police stood guard there creating a no man¡¯s land. Mediapersons trying to move ahead were asked to stay back as stones were being hurled. The stone-pelters were wearing helmets.
Even as police tried to defuse the situation, news of protesters setting a house on fire spread. I ran towards the chowk and saw a tower of smoke coming out from near a garbage dump. I saw a mob breaking the locks of shops with lathis and throwing something on fire inside.
When I tried to capture it on my cellphone, a youth shouted: ¡°Snatch her phone. The media is recording us and not them.¡± I quietly put away my phone. A mob soon came charging towards us and I managed to hang on to a railing with the help of TOI photojournalist Anindya Chattopadhyay. This happened twice.
I walked back to Maujpur Chowk and saw a 60-strong mob asking a man walking out of Kabir Nagar for his identity and then thrashing him. Police rushed in and the man with a bloody face was carried away by four people. I next saw a man breaking the nameplate of a bakery with the others around him clapping gleefully.
The biggest fear I witnessed was walking out of the area. Walking over the stones and bricks, people thought I was a stone-pelter. Luckily, I and two other reporters managed to reach our car. The fear of a stone being thrown from a rooftop hitting me still haunts me. I will carry a helmet tomorrow.