Who started the riot?

New Delhi: The continuous night of dread and despair is yet to come to an end. An uneasy silence weighs heavily upon the northeast Delhi where shops and homes were reduced to ashes. The riot which started on Sunday has left many families paralysed in fear. While speaking to Millennium Post, many families in Chand Bagh, Karawal Nagar, Shiv Vihar, Khajoori Khas, Mustafabad and Gokulpuri said this was done by outsiders – our Hindu/ Muslim neighbours are our brothers. That raises the question – who started the riot?

Several accounts of people from the Karawal Nagar area, bordering UP, suggested that groups of people came from the Loni border area armed with acid and petrol bombs with the sole purpose of attacking a specific community. A resident of Karawal Nagar, Faisal said, "How did they have so much petrol and sacks to set shops, houses, and cars on fire? Nobody keeps such large quantities of acid in their homes. They knew which areas to attack."

"There is a camp across the border which trains people, specially adolescents, to participate and propagate violence. They turn them into human bombs, who have lost all abilities to think rationally," an eye witness from the camp said.

"This entire riot seeps in communal hatred, it was an orchestrated, a thoroughly planned move by the Gujjars and people from the camp which is set up in the Loni Border area," he added.

Mohammed Afzal whose shops in Chand Bagh was burnt to the ground said, "They came armed with guns and rifles. Why they did not attack Jama Masjid area, they know they will be outnumbered there. They specifically targeted areas where the colonies are mixed with Hindu and Muslim families. They burnt my shops but spared the Hindu shops," he said.

The arson and vandalism of mosques in Gokulpuri has angered many Muslims and yet they protected the Hindu families living amongst them. The houses and schools layered with soot in Shiv Vihar shows the loss of many Hindu families who were ether labourers or small shop owners. A local resident of the area Lakhan said, "Our day goes in the shop and now because of the riot we are losing our business too. We do not want such violent activities. When they came and attacked us we could not do anything, we ran inside. We were fleeing by jumping from one rooftop to another. We did not have bombs or guns to fight back with."

Once the riot was in full swing men of both communities locked horns – the situation demanded violence. One could call it self defence or survival of the fittest but the communal fire had already spread.

(Image from news18.com)