Northeast Delhi turns into a war zone: Toll mounts to 13, over 200 injured

Communal violence over the amended citizenship law escalated in Northeast Delhi on Tuesday taking the death toll to 13 as police struggled to check the rioters who ran amok on streets, burning and looting shops, pelting stones and thrashing people.

After overnight incidents of arson, tension smouldered in the national capital and as the day progressed streets in several localities like Chand Bagh, Bhajanpura, Gokulpuri, Maujpur, Kardampuri and Jaffrabad saw pitched battles between the members of two groups who also hurled petrol bombs and opened fire.

Late in the night, locals in Maujpur area claimed that announcements were being made by police on loudspeakers about promulgation of shoot-at-sight orders, but Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northeast) Ved Prakash Surya denied it.

Over 200 people, including 48 police personnel, have been injured and half of the civilians have suffered gunshot wounds, hospital authorities said.

The violence, which started on Sunday after anti-CAA protests blocked a road outside Jaffrabad Metro station and BJP leader Kapil Mishra called a gathering in favour of CAA, intensified on Tuesday, despite shored up security in the city in view of US President Donald Trump’s visit. The protesters withdrew from the site on Tuesday night.

As Delhi Police faced allegations of inaction, Union Home Minister Amit Shah held a meeting with Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, city police commissioner Amulya Patnaik and others on steps to restore peace.

IPS officer S N Shrivastava was appointed as the new Delhi Police Special Commissioner (Law and Order) after the Union Home Ministry repatriated him from the CRPF on Tuesday night to take control of the situation in the wake of communal violence in the city, officials said.

delhi violenceProtesters set afire a shop | Photo: PTI
Delhi Police spokesperson Mandeep Singh Randhawa said 11 FIRs have been registered in connection with the violence. Over 20 persons have been detained and only one person, identified as Shahrukh who had fired a few rounds in the air after brandishing a gun at a policeman, has been arrested.

Sixty-seven companies of police and paramilitary personnel have been deployed across the area, police sources said.

In scenes not seen in the national capital for decades, frenzied groups thrashed people on the road and vandalised vehicles. Mediapersons were also attacked. Akshay, a journalist with JK 24X7 News, received a bullet injury and was in a serious condition in hospital, and two reporters from NDTV were beaten and punched by rioters. Many other journalists were heckled and told to go back. Rioters damaged two fire tenders in Gokulpuri and crowds raising incendiary slogans set on fire fruit carts, rickshaws and anything that came in their way in the epicentre of the trouble Maujpur and other places.

Police fired teargas shells to disperse the rioters — armed with stones, rods and even swords and many wearing helmets to protect themselves — and was assisted by paramilitary personnel. Streets were littered with mangled remains of vehicles, bricks and burnt tyres, mute testimony to the violence and bloodshed that took on a communal taint on Monday.

According to Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital officials, eight people succumbed to injuries suffered during violence on Tuesday, taking the death toll in 13. “Fifty per cent of those injured have sustained bullet injuries,” Medical Superintendent Sunil Kumar said.

Flag marches were conducted in Bhajanpura, Khajuri Khas and other places, but clashes continued till late in night. Randhawa said the areas affected by violence are congested and inhabited by mixed population.

The meeting presided by Shah resolved that workers of political parties should join hands to restore peace and peace committees should be reactivated in all localities. Schools were shut and fearful residents stayed indoors.

"There is hardly any police presence in the area. Rioters are running around threatening people, vandalising shops. Families need to be evacuated. We are unsafe in our own homes," said a resident of Maujpur, requesting anonymity.

Another added that this is the first time in 35 years — possibly since the 1984 anti-Sikh riots — that he has seen a situation such as this. “The area had always remained peaceful,” he told PTI. Trouble continued through the day. Around 5 pm in Chand Bagh, for instance, security personnel were pelted with stones. They chased the mob, only to be attacked afresh with some people also armed with petrol bombs.

Petitions in SC, HC

Pleas relating to the violence reached the Supreme Court and the Delhi High Court on Tuesday and they will hear the matter on Wednesday. A Bench comprising Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph will hear the fresh application on Wednesday.

Shortly after the mentioning in the apex court, a similar plea filed by human rights activist Harsh Mander and Farah Naqvi was mentioned before the high court, which also agreed to hear it on Wednesday. Private and government schools in violence affected North East Delhi will continue to be closed on Wednesday, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia announced on Tuesday.

The Central Board of Secondary Education postponed the board exams for Class 10 and 12 scheduled for Wednesday in violence-affected Northeast Delhi. There are a total of 86 centres in the area.

“The exam will be conducted in rest parts of Delhi as per earlier schedule. A fresh date for the exam in Northeast Delhi will be announced shortly,” a CBSE official said.

Delhi HC orders Kapil Mishra's speech to be played in court; top 10 updates

At least 20 people have been killed in the Delhi during violent clashes between Hindu and Muslim groups over Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), according to GTB Hospital authorities, although there was an eerie calm on Wednesday in the riot-torn areas.

"There are 15 patients in critical condition," the hospital official from the Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital said, adding a total of 20 people had now died at the facility. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal the situation has become "alarming" and asked the Centre to bring in the Army. Meanwhile, the high court has directed police to respond by 12:30 pm on Wednesday to a plea seeking lodging of FIRs and arrests of those involved in the ongoing communal violence in parts of northeast Delhi over CAA.

The Supreme court is scheduled to hear pleas claiming BJP's Kapil Mishra incited violence later in the day.

Here are the top 10 developments on Delhi violence

1. Important that calm and normalcy is restored at earliest: PM Modi

Three days of violent attacks in Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reacted to the development saying, "police, other agencies working on ground to ensure normalcy."

Peace, harmony central to our ethos, I appeal to sisters, brothers of Delhi to maintain peace and brotherhood, Modi said.


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Had an extensive review on the situation prevailing in various parts of Delhi. Police and other agencies are working on the ground to ensure peace and normalcy.

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2. Amit Shah should resign, says Sonia Gandhi

Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday said the Centre and the Delhi government were responsible for the deadly communal violence in the national capital.

Addressing a press conference after chairing a Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting, she said there was a conspiracy behind the violence and tragic incidents in Delhi.

"The conspiracy was witnessed during Delhi polls and BJP leaders gave hate speeches creating atmosphere of fear and hatred," she said.

The Centre, home minister and the Delhi government are responsible for the situation in the national capital, the Congress chief said.

Union Home Minister Shah must take responsibility for the violence in Delhi and resign, she said.

3. Death toll in northeast Delhi violence rises to 20
The death toll in northeast Delhi communal violence over the amended citizenship law rose to 20 on Wednesday, according to GTB Hospital authorities. On Tuesday, the death toll was 13.

4. Situation 'alarming'; Army should be called in, says Kejriwal

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday said the Army should be called in as police is unable to control the situation despite all its efforts following the violence in parts of northeast Delhi.

The chief minister said the situation has become "alarming", adding that he is writing to Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

5. HC directs Delhi police to respond by 12:30 pm on plea

The Delhi High Court directed police to respond by 12:30 pm on Wednesday to a plea seeking lodging of FIRs and arrests of those involved in the ongoing communal violence in parts of northeast Delhi over CAA.

A bench of Justices S Muralidhar and Talwant Singh said a senior-level police officer, who is aware of the facts, should be present before it at 12:30 pm with instructions.

ALSO READ: Delhi violence: HC directs police to respond by 12:30 pm on plea on FIRs

6. Delhi violence: SC rebukes police

The Supreme Court on Wednesday reprimanded Delhi Police for the clashes in Delhi and termed unfortunate the incidents of violence in the national capital but refused entertain pleas on them.

A bench comprising Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph said it will not expand the scope of petitions filed in connection with the protests at Shaheen Bagh by looking into the pleas on violence.

"These things would not have happened had police not allowed instigators to get away," the bench said, while referring to the incidents of violence.

Police doesn't have to wait for orders if someone makes inflammatory statements but act in accordance with law, the court said. Justice Joseph also said there was lack of professionalism on part of the police.

7. 'World is watching': US lawmakers express concern over Delhi violence

Reacting to the violence, US Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal said the "deadly surge of religious intolerance in India is horrifying".

"Democracies should not tolerate division and discrimination or promote laws that undermine religious freedom," she said in a tweet, adding that the "world is watching".

Congressman Alan Lowenthal too termed the violence a "tragic failure of moral leadership".

"We must speak out in the face of threats to human rights in India," he said.

"As President Trump toured India's capital, at least 11 people were killed in communal clashes that have upended a working-class neighborhood," The New York Times said.

8. Today's CBSE class 10 & 12 exam postponed over violence in northeast Delhi

CBSE has postponed Class 10, 12 exams in northeast Delhi scheduled today while exams will be held in remaining areas as per schedule. The new dates will be notified shortly, CBSE said.

9. Ajit Doval reviews security arrangements in northeast Delhi

National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval late on Tuesday night met with top police personnel at the office of Delhi Commissioner of Police North-East, following which he visited areas affected by violence in the national capital. Doval accompanied by senior police officials visited Seelampur, Jaffrabad, Maujpur and Gokulpuri Chowk to review the situation.

10. Congress condemns Delhi violence, accuses Centre of not paying attention

Whether the violence in East Delhi was instigated or spontaneous, the government has a duty to end the violence, said former Union Minister P Chidambaram. In a series of tweets, he said the violence has continued since Monday and even now there are incidents of violence. It shows the colossal failure of the Delhi Police. Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh also urged Amit Shah and Arvind Kejriwal to sit together and resolve the "crisis" in the national capital.

Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said, "Delhi's condition is extremely bad. It is saddening as it is India's capital. I regret that the government is not taking paying attention to it."

CAA protests: Section 144 in Bengaluru was illegal, says Karnataka HC

The Karnataka High Court held that the imposition of prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) during December 19-21, last year by the order of the Police Commissioner, as 'illegal'.

The bench of Chief Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Hemant Chandangoudar held on Thursday "that the order of Bangalore Police Commissioner Mr. Bhaskar Rao, IPS, imposing Section 144 of Criminal Procedure Code across Bangalore during 19-21 December 2019, illegal, as it does not satisfy the test of judicial scrutiny demanded of such orders."

The court issued the order in response to a batch of Public Interest Litigations (PILs) filed in this matter by various persons including, Prof. M. V. Rajeev Gowda, MP (Rajya Sabha), Soumya Reddy, MLA among others.

"These PIL's were filed challenging the order of the Police Commissioner, Bengaluru on various grounds including that the order suffered from non-application of mind and arbitrarily restricted the freedom of speech and expression of the petitioners as guaranteed in the Constitution of India," according to a note issued by the petitioners.

Section 144 had been imposed to maintain law and order in the wake of protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 and the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

The CAA seeks to grant Indian citizenship to refugees from Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist and Parsi communities fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh, and who entered India on or before December 31, 2014.

Rajasthan Assembly passes resolution against CAA, BJP members oppose

Rajasthan Assembly on Saturday passed a resolution urging the Centre to repeal the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), amid opposition by the BJP which accused the ruling Congress of pursuing appeasement politics.

It is the second Congress-ruled state to pass such a resolution after Punjab. Earlier, Kerala Assembly too had passed a resolution against the CAA moved jointly by the ruling Left alliance and the opposition Congress-led UDF.

The Rajasthan Assembly passed by voice vote the resolution which also asked the Centre to withdraw the new fields of information that have been sought for updation in National Population Register (NPR), 2020.

"It is evident that the CAA violates the provisions of the Constitution. Therefore, the House resolves to urge upon the government of India to repeal the CAA to avoid any discrimination on the basis of religion in granting citizenship and to ensure equality before law for all religious groups of India," Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shanti Dhariwal said while moving the resolution in the House.

Leader of Opposition Gulab Chand Kataria questioned the right to challenge the Act in the state assembly.

"Granting citizenship is a matter under the Centre and and in such a situation do we have the right to challenge the CAA.... The Congress should stop doing appeasement and vote bank politics," the BJP leader said.

Centre notifies Citizenship Act amid protests; SC to hear pleas on Jan 22

The Centre notified the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) on Friday. The notification comes nearly a month after Parliament passed it on December 11, and in the wake of sustained anti-CAA protests. The Supreme Court is set to hear petitions challenging the constitutionality of the law on January 22.

The Centre, by notifying the law, has indicated its resolve to implement it even as lawyers and retired judges, Opposition parties, activists, students and retired bureaucrats have criticised it as unconstitutional as it discriminates on the basis of religion.

Home Minister Amit Shah’s statements in Parliament that CAA would be followed by the National Population Register (NPR) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) have led to misgivings in large sections of the society, particularly Muslims, that they might lose citizenship and sent to detention camps. Kerala and West Bengal have said they would not implement the NPR, with other non-BJP ruled states also expressing reservations, which could sour Centre-state relations.

In recent weeks, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah have said there are no plans to bring in NRC, and that no detention camps have come up. But protests have continued with over 30 people killed, mostly Muslims, across India, including at least 20 in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh.

The law has amended the Citizenship Amendment Act of 1955 to provide for Indian citizenship to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian migrants who have come to India until December 31, 2014, because of religious persecution in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. It does not provide for citizenship to Muslims. It has also brought down the period of naturalisation for such migrants from 12 years to six years.

The Act is not applicable to the tribal area of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Tripura and all other areas of the Northeast covered under the ‘inner line permit’.

It also provides for cancellation of the Overseas Citizen of India status of any non-resident Indian if they are found to violate any law.

Anti-CAA stir: Notices to 46 for Muzaffarnagar vandalism; 4 others freed

The district adminstration has sent notices to 46 people for their alleged involvement in damaging public property during anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests here.

The notices to 46 people have been sent by a panel set up under additional district magistrate Amit Kumar by the authorities.

They have been told that the authorities found their involvement in alleged vandalism during the protests against the CAA on December 20 in the district, Kumar said.

The accused have been asked to send their replies by January 9, he said.

Meanwhile, four madrasa students, arrested after violence during anti-CAA protests, were released on the orders of a court as police gave them clean chit in its report filed before the chief judicial magistrate here on Friday.

BJP to launch 10-day door-to-door awareness campaign on Citizenship Act

Under pressure from sustained and widespread protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has announced a 10-day door-to -door awareness campaign from Sunday to “dispel misinformation” on the issue. It also sought to distance itself from the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

Even as protests against the CAA and its criticism continued from Opposition leaders, former diplomats, and academicians, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said in Jodhpur that the Narendra Modi government “will not budge an inch on its decision to implement the CAA”.

On Sunday, Shah will lead the campaign in Delhi, BJP working president J P Nadda will visit households in Ghaziabad, Rajnath Singh in Lucknow, Nitin Gadkari in Nagpur, and Nirmala Sitharaman in Jaipur. The target is to contact 30 million families in 10 days.

BJP Spokesperson Anil Jain said Indian Muslims have no reason to worry over the National Population Register (NPR) or the NRC. He said a nationwide consultation will be held before rolling out the NRC.

BJP to launch 10-day door-to-door awareness campaign on Citizenship ActBJP to launch 10-day door-to-door awareness campaign on Citizenship ActHowever, the BJP’s claims cut little ice with either protestors or Opposition parties. They continued to point to the contradictory statements from ministers and BJP leaders on the issue.

Congress Spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said not just the BJP’s allies, but its own chief minister (CM) of Assam Sarbananda Sonowal has rejected the CAA. On Thursday, Sonowal tweeted, “As a son of Assam, I will never settle foreigners in my state. This Sarbananda Sonowal will never allow this....”

Congress leader and former Assam CM Tarun Gogoi said his party will move a resolution in the special session of Assam Legislative Assembly that the Assam Accord should be implemented in letter and spirit. “We don’t want it violated. The CAA has not only violated the Assam Accord but also various provisions of our constitution,” Gogoi tweeted.

Days after the Kerala Assembly passed a resolution on repealing the CAA, CM Pinarayi Vijayan on Friday wrote to his counterparts in 11 non-BJP ruled states, including West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee, on the need to save secularism and democracy.

In the national capital, CM Arvind Kejriwal said CAA will impact both Hindus and Muslims and appealed to the people to reject the “unnecessary” legislation. “We don’t need this law, it is completely unnecessary. Where will we accommodate 20 million Hindus from Pakistan? ” he said.

Punjab CM Amarinder Singh came out in support of Kerala passing a resolution to reject CAA. In a letter to Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Singh said the CAA failed the test of the Constitution. “I am seriously concerned that the CAA can be easily misused for infiltrating the country, particularly in border states like Punjab. It is a potential threat to national security,” he said.

In a series of tweets, Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan, a BJP ally and a union minister, said nobody can be denied citizenship on ground of religion. Bengal CM Banerjee addressed a rally in Siliguri where she questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi for “frequently comparing India with Pakistan”. She wondered if Modi was an “ambassador of Hindustan or the neighbouring country”.

In the national capital, former National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon said there has been no meaningful international support for the government’s recent actions, apart from a few committed members of the diaspora and a ragtag bunch of European MPs from the extreme right.

Women and members from the queer and transgender communities took out a protest march from Mandi House to Jantar Mantar against the CAA in the national capital.

Jamia violence: Delhi HC notice to govt over judicial commission probe plea

The Delhi High Court on Thursday asked the Centre, the AAP government and the police to respond to several PILs seeking setting up of a judicial commission to look into the violence at Jamia Millia Islamia University protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar declined to pass any interim directions, including for protection of students from coercive action, and listed the matter for hearing on February 4.

As the bench declined to pass any interim orders and rose from the dais, the lawyers appearing in the PILs chanted "shame shame" and it was echoed by other lawyers in court.

The six petitions, moved by lawyers, students of JMI, residents of Okhla where university is located and the Imam of Jama Masjid mosque opposite Parliament House, had also sought medical treatment, compensation and interim protection from arrest for the students.

They had also sought appropriate action, including registration of FIRs, against the erring police officers.

Several public buses and two police vehicles were torched in the clash between students and police at New Friends' Colony near Jamia university during a demonstration against the CAA last Sunday.

Students and police personnel were injured in the incident