Residents recall horror at mosque; police says both sides took to stone-pelting

New Delhi: Even as residents of Jahangirpuri's C Block recalled with horror how multiple Hanuman Jayanti processions were held on Saturday, some of which had people brandishing swords and pistols and others tried to storm into the local mosque, the Delhi Police in their FIR in the matter have said that the Hindu procession was peaceful and that continued stone-pelting was done by members of the "other community".

However, while the police have said that both sides indulged in stone-pelting, the police complaint, based on which the FIR has been registered, says that the violence began when the procession was passing through the mosque and one person along with 4-5 associates starting arguing about it.

The police alleged that this argument then turned into violence and stone-pelting started from both sides. However, when the police briefly stopped the violence, the mobs again resorted to it within minutes, this time firing guns as well and injuring several cops and one local.

The police said that they then fired around 40-50 tear gas shells at the community that continued stone-pelting.

However, residents who spoke to Millennium Post about the violence recalled the horrors of Saturday saying that the Hanuman Jayanti procession had people with weapons and that vulgar anti-Muslim slogans were being shouted near the local mosque.

Residents on Sunday largely stayed indoors while there was heavy police deployment in C-Block, the epicentre of the communal violence, and around a mosque in that area.

Shankar Kumar, 26, who is a student of Delhi University, said that during the procession, people were abusing Muslim families and that right wing organisations were holding a bike rally and raising communal slogans

Mohammad Alam, another resident said that they had been living peacefully in the area for years. The mosque in the Jahangirpuri area, C Block was in the middle and mob members were carrying swords, sticks and rallying around the Mosque area, he recalled.

During the Iftar time, they were doing rallies and chanting communal slogans like "If you want to stay in India you have to say Jai Shri Ram," said Mohammad Alam, who drives a battery rickshaw in the area and added that the mobs were trying to enter the mosque with saffron flags and were dancing to loud music.

Sheikh Amzad, a resident of C-Block, said that he was inside the mosque when the violence took place on Saturday evening.

"We were were reading namaz when the procession gathered outside and started screaming 'Maaro inn gaddaro ko'. We were just doing our usual Ramzan rituals, what is wrong in that? Does reading namaz makes one a traitor? he asked even as 14-year-old Faraz recounted how hid

behind a wheelbarrow to escape the violence. with pti inputs