I Visited Old Mustafabad, Witnessed After-Effects Of Delhi Riots With My Own Eyes & It's Scary

¡°Maar daalo musalmaano ko, kaat daalo inn mullo ko¡± is what Salima Begum heard while escaping from her home in Shiv Vihar, a Muslim neighbourhood which was being burnt to ashes. In her panicked state, she managed to flee the riots along with five of her children with the youngest one being just eight years old.

Salima¡¯s family is one of the many who lost their homes in the Delhi riots that took place in Old Mustafabad last week. Now, cooped up in a well-wisher¡¯s house in a nearby neighbourhood along with almost 300 people, she has no idea if her home still exists or not.

According to Salima¡¯s ordeal, commotion began at 11 AM when she heard a bunch of people yelling out ¡®Jai Shree Ram¡¯ and entering her neighbourhood. By 4 PM, the entire locality was flooded with people who came with one purpose only -- Destruction.

AFP

Labelled as ¡®outsiders¡¯, none of the riot victims recognised the angry mob and believe they were sent especially to carry out this violent mission to destroy their livelihoods.

Rashid, a resident of Chaman Park, Old Mustafad who lives on the other side of the locality where fortunately the riots did not take place strongly condemns the violence that snatched away people¡¯s homes and lives.

¡°We are burying at least 2-3 dead bodies every day since the day of the riots. We don¡¯t know who those people were but we know for sure they were hired to do this. They didn¡¯t belong to our community and even our Hindu neighbours have confirmed for us that they did not recognise them.¡±

Muslims who fled Shiv Vihar to find safe haven for their families are now being sheltered by other people of their community whose neighbourhoods did not suffer the brunt of the riot. Men, women, old and young, children, infants, all of them were victims of the atrocities that took place and even basic amenities like clean drinking water, sanitation and daily meals have become a struggle for them.

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While sharing her ordeal, Salima broke down and just asked for one thing -- Her home.

¡°I knew if I stayed there, my kids and I would have been killed. By the time I managed to escape my galli, I looked back and saw everything being burnt to the ground including our Masjid.¡±

An elderly woman joined in on the conversation and confessed that they don¡¯t even know which people from their neighbourhood have lost their lives in the violence. Salima confirmed her statement and said, ¡°Hume nahi pata hamaare gharo ka kya kara ya kya nahi kara. Hume jaane hi nahi de rahe.¡± (¡°We don¡¯t even know what they did to our homes. They (the authorities) are not letting us go there.¡±)

Residents of Shiv Vihar for the last 28 years, these families have lost their homes and their entire livelihoods in the violent hate crimes that took over their neighbourhood. The only solace they are holding onto right now are the donations that people from all over the city are contributing to the several camps that have been set up to provide relief to the riot victims.

When asked if they tried to contact any authorities while the riots were taking place, Salima almost broke down and said, ¡°We don¡¯t even know who to call. I don¡¯t even know the number I am supposed to dial to call the police. Even if I did know, I had little children to look after. In the violence that was taking place, I had to look after my kids before I could even think of contacting someone.¡±

¡°Puri zindagi humne kisi ka kuchh nahi bigaada. Pata nahi hume kyu barbaad kar diya inn logo ne. Pura Shiv Vihar hamara barbaad kar diya, hamaari biradri khatam kar di.¡±

(¡°I¡¯ve never done any sort of harm to anyone in my entire life. I don¡¯t know why they destroyed us. They demolished our neighbourhoods. Our whole community has been completely destroyed.¡±)

AFP

Not just destruction, but the rioters looted the homes before setting them on fire. Cash, jewellery and everything else valuable that they could get their hands on was taken by the mob. A young mother ran for her life by escaping from roof to roof with her newborn baby in her panicked arms.

¡°They stole the money I had saved up to pay for my delivery. Everything I had saved up was looted by the mob and now I have nothing left.¡±

While the women are taking care of the children, the men are keeping an eye out on the streets in case something like this repeats itself. Kind people who have opened their homes to these victims are going out of their way to make sure none of them suffer anymore.

Rubina, a woman whose home is one of the safe houses for the riot victims confirmed that they could hear endless gunshots for over 48 hours and some people from their area who went out to help also ended up suffering from injuries inflicted by the mob.

Residents of Chaman Park also claim that while the 48-hour-long trauma was taking place, there were only 4-5 policemen available at the borders of these neighbourhoods doing nothing. According to them, the mob was as big as 2000 people and at least 500 of them were flooding the gallis and wrecking everything in sight, man or land. They also believe that if the administration wanted, they could have contained it but nobody showed up while people suffered at the hands of these murderers.

After speaking to the women, I went back to have a word with Rashid, the young man from Chaman Park and he informed me about the multiple Hindu neighbourhoods that surround their Muslim ones. He said, ¡°We have so many Hindu neighbourhoods around the area and plenty of temples. But none of them even remotely came in contact with any sort of violence. No people lost their lives, no temples were destroyed. Whereas on the other hand, our communities were left to burn. If this is not propaganda against our religion, then what is? This is the work of mentally unstable people because no one else is capable of such violence.¡±

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When asked if Muslims were getting shot on sight, Rubina informed that if they were just shooting them, that would have been the easier way to die. According to her, people were slaughtered, burnt alive and dragged out on the road.

Rashid also informed me that the loss suffered by the neighbourhood is in crores and apart from homes, Muslim shops were looted. If a shop belonged to a Hindu but a Muslim had rented it out, the mob didn¡¯t touch the property but robbed the entire inventory of the shop.

AFP

These riots are not just an attack on the Muslim community but the first step into intra-country violence that could spell danger and destroy the secular fabric of our beloved country. If the way these families are suffering is just the beginning of a greater war, humanity needs to step in and fight against it. We, as citizens of the largest democracy in the world need to save our people; save our country.

*Names of the people have been changed to ensure their safety.